The CMOs Daughter
by pdljmpr6
Summary: Someone once dared him to do better and it has made all the difference. When he has the opportunity to do the same for someone else, he can only hope they are as stubborn as he once was.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Okay, I've been writing fanfic for quite some time now, for several different fandoms, but I've NEVER been so nervous about posting a fic. I was raised by trekkies, but mostly on STNG, although I am well versed in TOS and I saw ST09 in theaters five times (my friends and family are about ready to have me committed) and really want to do the franchise justice. I couldn't hold back any longer. So, this fic screws with the time line a bit, I know McCoy having a daughter 'Joanna' is cannon, but I grew her up about ten years for this fic. Hope no one is horrified by that. If you'd like to read more, please review. I have three other fics in the works for another fandom and am not going to worry about updating this one if no one is interested. Anyway, hope you all enjoy this!

**Disclaimer**: I own nothing even remotely Star Trek related, I would totally buy Chris Pine, though.

* * *

Kirk shuffled several PADDs detailing ships' functions and activities set out for the day on his lap, Spock stood at his elbow adding comments when needed, per their routine. He was expecting the new Yeoman any minute and, judging from the way the rest of the bridge crew kept glancing at the Turbo lift doors, he wasn't the only one.

No one knew the details. He'd been sure of that. But the girl's name was public knowledge and after that leaked out, rumors had spread like wildfire. Everything from 'she's an estranged relative who grew up off-planet and is vying for Starfleet Command track, hoping to get a leg up' to 'she's just an acquaintance that Starfleet is forcing the Captain to take in' was circulating through his crew.

Kirk, for his part, did his best to quell the rumors or, since that seemed an impossible task, at least not add to them. But when the Turbo lift doors finally hissed open at 0805 that morning, and he caught sight of his new Yeoman out of the corner of his eye, he knew it had all been for naught.

"I assume your Starfleet uniform hasn't arrived yet?" he said with a raised eyebrow, still focusing on the PADD in his hand.

The Yeoman stepped off the lift and took a small, almost hesitant step onto the bridge, her arms folded protectively over her chest. The short denim skirt was something that would have been popular over a century before, the black boots had to have been too big for her and the chains dangling from them were certainly unnecessary. Her white tank top was a nice canvas for her outlandish Ksharti Jewelry but none of it could be even remotely considered Starfleet issue.

"Oh, no. It arrived," the girl, no more than seventeen, replied haughtily. She flipped her asymmetrical blonde hair off one shoulder and shrugged the other, "I just didn't feel like wearing it."

Kirk looked up slowly from the data pad in his hand to the sleek metal floor directly in front of him and forced himself to take a deep breath, quelling impulses that he hadn't acted on in nearly a year since taking command of the Enterprise and clenched his jaw.

This was not how he'd hoped to start the day. Or the yearlong stint with his new Yeoman.

The girl raised a challenging eyebrow coupled with a cocky smirk that he would have sworn he used to (and sometimes still did) see in the mirror, "what, Jim? Cat got your tongue?"

Kirk heard a slight gasp echo around the bridge, could almost feel Spock's raised eyebrow and Uhura's penetrative gaze. Sulu and Chekov's shock was visible; both their chairs were swiveled around backwards and staring openly at the pair.

It wasn't unheard of for someone to disrespect their captain, he was the youngest and, for that very reason, one of the most disliked, captains in the fleet. But he was also one of the _best _Captains in the fleet and it took a special person indeed to disrespect him _on his own bridge_ and live to get away with it.

"Yeoman McCoy," Kirk said in a tone that made everyone on the bridge straighten in their chairs. He still did not look at her, the muscles in his jaw flexing beneath his skin, "my ready room. _Now_."

With a heavy sigh and an extravagant roll of her eyes the girl stalked to the door on the other side of the bridge, head held high. Kirk took another deep breath, wishing to calm himself before he stood from his chair and, avoiding the gazes of each member of the bridge crew, turned to follow.

"Spock, you have the Con," he snapped, and disappeared into the small room off the bridge just as a dutiful 'aye captain' hit his ears.

On the other side of the door the girl was leaning all too casually against his desk.

"So what's this? Starfleet's version of a principals' office?" she asked in a bored tone.

"No, Joanna," he said, taking a small step forward, his temper getting the better of him as his whole face flared red, "this is me two seconds from jettisoning you onto the nearest M-Class."

She straightened, her face betraying confusing and hurt for a moment before falling back behind an impassive mask, "who the hell do you think you are?" she asked, her voice rising with unbridled indignation.

"I think I am the _Captain_ of the Starship Enterprise. I think I earned the right to wear this uniform and be a part of this crew," he stopped and took a small step backward, clasping his hands behind his back, "That's a _priveledge _that has been given to you, albeit temporarily. But you _will _respect it, myself _and _my crew while you are on this ship."

"Or what?" she spat, a fire in her eyes that he recognized, "you'll jettison me onto the next M-class?"

He clenched his jaw and moved to sit at his desk, looking up at her but keeping his face carefully stoic, "No," he said as calmly as possible, "but you were given a choice, Jo. Three years in the Juvenile Detention System, or a year aboard a Starfleet vessel. You _chose _this. And if you're hoping that if you push me hard enough I'll drop you off at the nearest space station and you'll be on your way home…you're gonna be real disappointed." The girl shifted a bit and he knew he'd hit home, "Because I intend to make sure you go through with your year aboard a starship. Now, whether that's spent as a cohesive part of my crew or staring at three walls and a forcefeild, is up to you."

She held his glare stonily for several admirable moments. Met it head on, a glare that often sent junior officers scurrying in the opposite direction, had been known to make or break diplomatic negotiations and had on more than one occasion outmatched a particular Vulcan's raised eyebrow, made no visible impression on the girls' cool blue eyes. Still, she broke first.

She stood straighter and looked straight through him with her father's eyes, "fine. Are you going to show me the way or should I wait for Security?"

---

McCoy strode at a half jog around the E-deck of the Enterprise, the fury on his face clearing a path through anyone that happened to be milling about. He wasn't sure who he was angrier with, Joanna for getting herself thrown in jail (again) or Jim for putting her there.

'_Please provide name, rank, and reason for entry request.'_

The disembodied voice of the aggravatingly polite computer chimed around him as he tried to gain entry to the Brig.

"McCoy, Leonard. Chief Medical Officer. And I need to talk some sense into my damn kid." He snapped, glaring at the sealed doors in front of him.

'_I am sorry. That is not a valid reason for entry, Dr. McCoy. Your request has been denied.'_

McCoy made a noise somewhere between a growl and a curse and slapped his hand against a communications panel to his right.

"This is the bridge," Uhura's voice replaced the disembodied one of the computer but it didn't do anything to improve his mood.

"Uhura, put Jim on," he didn't wait as his request was put through, "Jim the damn computer won't open the doors to the Brig so I can see my hotheaded daughter who you put in the goddamn brig you sorry son of a-" his rant was cut off, thankfully, by the swish of doors beside him and he let go of the button, choosing not to sign off 'per goddamn protocol'.

"Jo?" he asked, once he was a few steps inside some of his temper seeping out of him as the gravity of the situation set in. The brig was really just a large room lined with darkened 10x10 cells that were open on the one side facing the console in the center, where a forcefield would be raised once occupied, making the entire round doorway glow in an unearthly white. Like the cell directly across from the door where Joanna was sprawled on the bench/bed with her legs crossed at the ankles, her hands folded over her chest as she stared up at the ceiling.

Seeing her seeming nonchalance set his anger off again and he let it out the least destructive way he knew how.

But sarcasm never really worked very well on Joanna.

"I thought you joined Starfleet in order to stay _out _of jail."

She didn't even turn to look at him. "Nice to see you too, dad." Her voice was flat and didn't betray the excitement that still fluttered in her stomach at hearing his voice in person for the first time in years. She wouldn't give him that satisfaction. "I'm fine, by the way, thanks for asking."

Immediately he regretted his choice of words, "Joey I just meant…"

Suddenly Jo was on her feet, inches from the invisible force field, pointing one black-tipped finger at her father, "_don't _call me that. You haven't even _begun _to earn the right to call me that. Okay?" She pursed her lips and let the acusitory finger drop down to her side again. If she was surprised by her own outburst she didn't show it.

But Bones sure was.

"Jo, I-" he tried , but again was cut off.

"Whatever," she glanced away, pushing the long hair on the right side of her head behind her ear, and breifly touching the close shaved left side with her fingertips, "anyway, I didn't join Starfleet. I joined this ship and its crew. Unfortunately, I don't play well with others. A trait some might say I get from my father." She said, crossing her arms tilting her head to one side, deliberately provoking him.

He took a deep breath, rubbing his face. He'd just gotten off a twelve hour shift in sickbay and it showed, "Jo, this is ridiculous. You're too young and too smart to keep landing yourself in trouble like this. You're acting like a child and I've had just about enough of-"

"Hey!" she stepped toward the forcefield, the chains on her boots jangling loudly, "Don't presume to think you can tell me who I am or what to do. I'm seventeen years old. Those days are over and you missed them. If you cared so goddamn much about what became of me, maybe you should have been there!"

McCoy stared at her, but the tongue-tied feeling only lasted a moment. He raised a finger to point at her, "you see here Joanna McCoy I am not about to-", he was cut off from finishing when the electronic chime on the wall alerted him to being hailed through the ships communicator system. He clenched his teeth and stalked over to the panel on the wall.

"This is McCoy," he barked.

"Doctor, this is Nurse Chapel," she seemed unphased by his short tone, "Leutinent Marks is waking up, you said you wanted to be alerted as soon as he did so you could finish-"

"Yeah, I remember," he reached up and rubbed his eyes, they were still closed when he dropped his hand back to his side, "okay. I'll be right there."

He sighed in frustration and closed his eyes briefly before turning around.

"I have to go, something has come up," He said, truly regretting the fact. He opened his eyes to look at his teenage daughter. A woman he barely knew. Defiance and anger written in her body language and he wondered if bringing her to the Enterprise had been the best choice.

Joanna grinned sarcastically to mask the sinking feeling in her stomach, and shrugged. "Of course, wouldn't want to keep the Leutinent waiting." He hesitated and she dropped the smile and moved her eyes to the wall.

"Just go," she said, her voice flat and as emotionless as her carefully arranged expression.

McCoy looked as if there might have been something else he wanted to say, and she held her breath as she waited, but nothing came. He nodded once and mumbled that he would come back later and turned to leave.

After he'd gone the façade faded and Jo turned away so the security guard wouldn't see her disappointment, "good to know some things will never change no matter how far you are from home."

_TBC_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **WOW. Thanks so much for all the kind reviews and to everyone who put this fic on Alert. I was ecstatic at the positive response to this fic and can't wait to hear what everyone thinks of this chap. Thanks again, and enjoy! - pj

Jo hadn't gone into this whole thing unprepared. Not…entirely. She had never planned on ending up in the brig, but she had never really meant to be a Yeoman either. She'd just thought she'd get stuck in her quarters for a while. She really had expected 'Uncle' Jim to drop her off at the nearest star base. Then she could hitch a ride on the next available cargo ship and after that…the stars were the limit.

Instead she found herself staring at the ceiling of a 10x10 cell, her only companion being an extremely non-talkative security officer with a penchant for dirty looks.

"How about Shannon?"

Another glare.

"What?" she asked, sounding as innocent as she possibly could, "that's a boy's name too." The man turned his dark look back to his console and she sat up on her metal bench, pulling off her uncomfortable Kshanti necklace. It was wild and loud, which was why she wore it, but the little spikes and sharp edges made it uncomfortable, and possibly dangerous, to wear.

"You know if you would just tell me your name I wouldn't have to guess."

The security guard was saved from having to make a comment, not that he would have, when the doors to the brig slid open and a tall, lanky figure strode through.

She knew who he was, of course, there weren't very many Vulcans around anymore, and only one that served aboard the enterprise. That and the fact that she'd met him once. At a crew picnic a year ago when the Enterprise crew was planet-side and her father had miraculously invited her to intend.

"Mr. Spock. Nice to see you again," she said brightly. She actually could use a little company right now, Security Officer NoName wasn't very entertaining.

"And you as well, Yeoman McCoy."

Jo wrinkled her nose, "it's Jo. I'm not overly fond of titles."

Spock tilted his head to one side, "it is an honor to be bestowed a title in Starfleet."

"One I didn't ask for," she responded evenly.

"Ensign Daniels, I believe it is time for your scheduled 15 minute respite," Spock kept his eyes on the girl as he spoke to the man at the console.

The young man seemed hesitant as he stood, "But sir-"

Spock spared a glance in his direction and it was enough to convince the man to obey.

"Aye sir."

A smirk caught Jo's lips, "See ya' later Danny."

The man's step hitched and his back stiffened but he didn't turn around and continued on his course for the doors.

"The Captain sending his underlings to do his dirty work now?" Jo asked, standing and moving to look at the glowing red box on the wall, wondering what it did and if it would be a bad idea to pick at it with one of the spikes from her necklace.

"On the contrary," Spock began, taking a small step forward, his hands clasped calmly behind his back, "I am here of my own volition. Also, the brig meets all sanitary standards expected of a Starfleet vessel."

In spite of herself, Jo smiled, but she didn't correct his mistaken understanding of what she'd said.

"Then what do you want?" She sat back down and leaned against the wall, resting her head in the corner and allowing her eyes to fall shut.

"I was…curious about your behavior on the bridge."

She opened one eye, the suspicion now unmasked in her voice. "What about it?"

"You acted as if you did not wish to be here."

"I don't."

"You would rather be in a Juvenile Rehabilitation Center?"

"No I…" she breathed out hard and sat forward, "I just don't like being told what to do. I was told I _had _to come here. I was made Yeoman because it's supposed to teach me responsibility and teamwork and a whole shipload of crap that I don't care about or want any part of."

"I see," Spock looked thoughtful for a moment, "then your rebellious behavior on the bridge was really just an attempt to take charge of a situation that was out of your control. And by allowing yourself to be put in the brig, you gained said control because it was not the original option put before you."

She licked her lips, her muscles twitching with the effort to remain still, "to put it eloquently, yeah."

"But the outcome was undesirable."

"Oh I don't know, it's kind of cozy down here," she smiled bitterly, "temperature control, all the glowing white light I want and Danny and I have finished a couple of challenging Sudoku puzzles together."

"That is human sarcasm, is it not? I have become quite familiar with it through my dealings with Dr. McCoy."

Spock noticed a slight change in the girl's expression with the mention of the CMO, but it seemed she was determined not to express herself any further. He studied her for a few moments more. She stared back at him unblinkingly.

"I win," she said after a moment.

"I beg your pardon?"

She smiled a cockeyed grin, "you blinked first."

Spock raised an eyebrow and silently came to the conclusion that this particular human was even more illogical than most of whom he had encountered. He found that was both unexpected and troubling.

He nodded, remembering his original reason for coming to the Brig.

"I thank you for the clarification," Spock turned to leave.

"Anytime," Jo grumbled, moving to lie back down. She listened as Spock's boots clicked across the floor for a few steps and then tensed when they suddenly stopped.

"Yeoman McCoy."

She sighed and bit back a curse, "yeah Spock?" she asked, one arm flung haphazardly across her eyes.

"Commander," he corrected evenly, "might I make a suggestion?"

"You might, _Commander_."

"The Captain's history is public record available to you should you request it. I think you might find its contents…stimulating."

Joanna frowned and sat up to look at him but Spock was already gone.

---

Jim stepped into sickbay somewhat cautiously. He didn't really like to come down here. Not only was it the one place on the ship where his orders weren't automatically followed without question but it was also a fact that he'd never been there when something _good _was happening. In fact, wasn't sickbay where you were supposed to go after something very _bad _had happened? And people wondered why he avoided the place like the Sarcovi Plague.

"Nurse Chapel," he said, catching the woman's attention as she passed by him, a MediPad in each hand, "you seen Bones?"

She paused and glanced at him distractedly, "he's in his office, sir."

Jim nodded and crossed the room to the sliding glass door on the far side. The door didn't swish open when he approached so he pressed his finger to the chime and waited. A moment later a locking mechanism disengaged and he stepped into the spacious CMO office. McCoy had crammed the space with antique medical books, PADDs and a comfortable couch very well suited for sleeping. He was currently sitting behind his desk staring at a computer screen.

"Permission to enter?" He asked, a tentative amount of teasing in his voice.

McCoy glanced up at him but returned his eyes to the computer screen immediately, "As you're so fond of reminding everyone, 'it's your ship'."

Kirk dropped the half-grin and clasped his hands behind his back, "Okay. You're pissed. I get it."

"Pissed?" Bones looked up at him, incredulous blue eyes flashing, "I'm way past pissed Jim. The whole point of bringing Joey here was so that she wouldn't end up in a Juvenile Correctional Facility. So the first thing you do when she comes aboard is send her to the brig? My _god_ man does that actually make sense to you?"

"Hey, it wasn't exactly my first choice, okay? You think I like seeing her behind a forcefeild like some ferengi smuggler?" Jim demanded. Of course he didn't. Jo was Bones' daughter, he'd known her since…well, since before the attitude got out of hand and she realized her father was as imperfect as the rest of the universe.

Jim took a deep breath and forced his voice to drop a few octaves, "Look, you and I both know that she doesn't want this out of her life. But she needed a reality check and I prefer she get it from me than some Earth judge who doesn't know her and doesn't care what happens to her. Wouldn't you?"

Bones looked up and saw the sincerity in his young friend's eyes. Finally, he nodded, though he couldn't help hoping this wasn't another one of Jim's plans famous plans where the rulebook goes out the window along with just about everything else.

---

Joanna paced the length of the small cubicle she'd called 'her own' in the brig. She chewed her right thumbnail absently as she waited for her visitor to arrive. A few feet away on the padded metal bench lay two data pads containing everything available in the ships library that she could find relating to 'James T Kirk, Captain, NCC-1701 Enterprise'.

Some of it she'd already known, most of it though, she hadn't.

She jerked her head up when she heard the doors swish open and turned to face the man who approached.

"Yeoman," Kirk greeted, nodding his head and clasping his hands behind his back in a way that reminded her of Spock, "you requested to meet with me."

She gave him a long hard look, momentarily debating her approach, before taking a small step forward, her lips pursed in a thin line.

"Did you bring me here so you could 'save me' the way Admiral Pike once saved you?" She shot off her first question with all the fire and brimstone he'd come to expect of a McCoy, her tone and red-faced enthusiasm telling him he ought to choose his words carefully.

"No," he responded, almost too quickly and her eyes narrowed microscopically, "it's why I allowed you to come on board."

"Then why? You're the Captain of Starfleet's flagship and I'm a juvenile delinquent from a wealthy Earth family. Why would you 'allow me' on your ship," she asked, her tone only slightly less scathing than before.

Kirk licked his lips and set his jaw with determination, "because Bones asked me to."

Immediately the scowl fell off her face and her blue eyes widened, her arms dropping with shock. She hadn't expected that.

She didn't answer, so he continued.

"He cares about you, Jo. He always has," he knew she didn't believe it, so he didn't wait for her to answer. Instead he gave her a look that she almost would have called mischievous, and took a few steps forward crossing the threshold into the cell without so much as a nod to the security guard for him to let the force field down.

Immediately Jo's brows knit in confusion, "what the-"

Jim bent to pick up one of the data pads and glanced through its contents, "been reading up on your new Captain, eh?" he smiled a crooked grin at her and then dropped the PADD back onto the bench, "I've been reading up on you too. School records. Teacher's notes. Arresting officer's reports," she rolled her eyes at the last one, but he continued, "they all said pretty much the same thing."

She crossed her arms, attitude back in place, and gave him a challenging look, "and what was that?"

For a moment he was struck by her. By the easy bravado she exuded. The pretense of calm and casual rebellion that was just that, a pretence. A front. He recognized it. Knew it all too well. Wondered what had happened to this girl to make her think that was the only way she would survive.

"That you're a smart kid. Capable of great things _but_," he paused, but she admirably kept her face neutral, "that you've got an attitude problem and no interests in changing so that your life doesn't end up a complete waste."

Jo clicked her jaw shut and tightened her fingers around her arms, crossed over her chest. That part stung a bit.

"So?"

"You ever play truth or dare?"

Jo frowned, taken off guard by the question, "yeah. A few times."

"Well?" he asked expectantly.

"Well what?"

"Truth or dare?"

She snorted, "seriously? How old are-"

"Truth. Or. Dare." The seriousness of his tone belied his childish words and Jo stared at him.

"Dare."

He almost smiled, "I had a feeling you might say that." Then he dipped his chin and narrowed his piercing blue eyes at the girl, "I dare you to prove them wrong."

Jo tilted her head slightly, "I don't understand."

Kirk turned to walk toward the entrance again, "Why didn't you leave?"

He turned back to her when she didn't answer and gestured at the opening, "the forcefeild was never up, I made sure of that," Jo sent a quick glance at the Security Guard, but he pretended not to be listening, "so why didn't you just go?"

Jo shrugged one shoulder, "I thought..." she shrugged again, "I thought I couldn't."

He nodded, "You thought you didn't have a choice. You thought that this," he motioned around the cell, "was all you had, all you'd been given to work with and you were willing to stay here. To let this invisible wall stop you from going and doing and being what you wanted," he let his arms drop back to his sides and took a small step toward her, "Don't let that forcefeild be a metaphor for the rest of your life, Joanna. Prove them wrong, make something of yourself. Do better than that…I dare you."

He walked out of the cell and gave her a grave look, "you have one night to decide if you're going to spend the next 364 days here or up there," he pointed toward the ceiling where the Bridge sat fourteen decks above them, "At 0800 tomorrow your shift starts on the Bridge. At the same time, this forcefeild is going to go up. Permanently." He tilted his head slightly to one side, "Which side of it you're on when it does is up to you."

And with that, for the second time that day, Joanna was left with her mind spinning, staring at someone's back as they sauntered out of the Brig.

_TBC_


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **I'm glad everyone still seems to be liking this fic. I'm super excited about getting my ST09 dvds next month. ::sigh:: Chris Pine...Enjoy! - pj

Jo hardly slept that night. Her entire being felt as if it was being ripped in two different directions.

On the one side, she had spent her whole life rebelling against every guiding force she came up against. First her mother, then her teachers and the rules they tried to enforce. The laws of the states in which she lived and now: Starfleet. Really, it was everything she hated. Conformity. Regulations. Expectations. Boundaries.

She bit her right thumbnail as she paced, eying the would-be forcefeild with a suspicious glare every now and then and sometimes sending the on duty security guard a dirty look for good measure. Just to keep him on his toes.

She turned and paced in the other direction, the buckles on her boots jangling loudly.

On the other side, there was a part of her that wanted to please her father. A part she'd spent her life trying to push away, but had never quite succeeded. And, what was more, Jim – _Captain_ – Kirk, a man she respected in spite of herself had dared her to do it.

She took another deep breath and closed her eyes. At this point, she was just stalling. Her decision had been made the moment she heard the Captain's challenge.

---

Kirk surreptitiously clicked the small circular icon in the corner of his PADD and small white numbers flashed 0757am across the bottom of the screen. She still had three minutes. He kept his face angled down as he shifted his eyes over to one side, unsure if his first officer had seen him check the time for the third time in fewer minutes.

"I believe the new Yeoman has made her choice," the Commander stated, his hands clasped in a relaxed pose behind his back. Kirk grit his teeth and signed his DigiSig at the bottom of the PADD with a flourish. Since when did anything _ever _escape the Vulcan's notice?

"She'll be here." Kirk stated, handing over the PADD and wishing he felt as sure as he sounded. With Jo it could go either way. She could choose to stay in the Brig just to spite him; it _would _be a very McCoy thing of her to do. But then...she could surprise him just as easily and maybe for the same reason.

Kirk rubbed his hands on his thighs and crossed his legs.

He glanced at a small digital readout on the console beside him as he reached for his coffee.

_0800. Damn. _

"Alright Mr. Sulu we-"

He was cut off by the sound of the Turbo lift doors opening and, with a strange sense of déjà vu, he turned to look, along with the rest of the bridge crew, as Joanna McCoy stepped out onto the bridge of the Enterprise for the second time in as many days.

But this time was different.

This time she wore a Starfleet uniform, although the wide black bracelet and hoop earrings left a little something to be desired. Her eye makeup was toned down and her hair clipped back so it didn't fall in her face, a marked improvement from the day before.

She took what seemed to be a steadying breath and tugged at the hem of her skirt as she walked across the bridge to stand in front of him.

Jo clenched her teeth, trying hard not to let her discomfort show on her face.

She hated the red of the uniform. She was uncomfortable in the length of the skirt, she felt small and exposed with her hair pulled back and she wasn't used to wearing so little makeup. The boots were militant and understated not to mention quiet. It was 'Starfleet' not 'Joanna' and the combination of it all had her fighting the impulse to crawl back into the Turbo lift.

Jo bit her lip as she looked up at the Captain and swallowed hard. She realized she was the focus of everyone on the Main Bridge as ten sets of eyes bored into her skin. She glanced around, meeting the various gazes staring at her, their expressions ranging the gamut of openly curious to obviously suspicious to waiting-for-the-shit-to-hit-the-fan.

She brought her gaze back to the Captain's and found none of the expected judgment in his eyes, only something akin to amusement and understanding.

She drew her shoulders back and forced herself to stop shifting her feet back and forth and unfurl her fingers from her palms.

"Permission to come aboard, sir."

The corner of Kirk's mouth kicked up and he gave a slight nod, "Permission granted," he looked her over a moment and then said, without looking away, "Mr. Spock, you have the con." Then he stood and walked across the bridge to his ready room, "Yeoman McCoy, a word."

Jo took another deep breath and dutifully marched across the bridge, sliding through the open doors ahead of the captain as he waited, giving a 'get back to work' look to his bridge crew before turning and going in after her.

"This isn't going to become a thing for us, is it?" She said once the door was shut, some of the sarcasm from the previous day seeping into her voice, but there was none of the disdain behind it.

"A thing?" the captain repeated, sitting at his desk and folding his hands to look up at her.

She nodded. "Yeah, you know, asking me to your Ready Room every time I set foot on the bridge?"

Kirk chucked lightly and shook his head, "no, no thing." He was still smiling as he looked up at her and noted with interest that, though she was attempting to project the same disinterested bravado from the day before, it was all an act. She shifted on her feet and her hands were balled into tight fists, she was nervous and uncertain and he wasn't sure why.

"I guess you made your decision," he said, though it was a statement that clearly begged for an answer.

She glanced down at herself in her red uniform and shrugged, "looks that way," she said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Why?"

She drug her eyes, which had been wandering about the room, back to him, "what?"

Kirk didn't move, his voice remaining stern and allowed none of his compassion for the girl to show through, "Why did you choose to come to my bridge today?"

She frowned at him, studying him carefully. If this was a trick question she wanted to know about it. But she saw no amusement, nothing untrustworthy in his eyes. Only sincere interest and patience.

She bit her lip. She wanted to say something sarcastic along the lines of 'it's as good a place as any and the seats are more comfortable here than in the Brig' or maybe just laugh out loud because 'had he really given her a choice in the matter?'

She shrugged again, unsure of what to say, "It was the bridge or the brig."

He dipped his chin, "that's the only reason?"

She could tell that wasn't what he wanted to hear, but didn't open her mouth to change it. She wasn't sure she was ready to reveal the true reasons. Wasn't sure she could tell him, out loud, that a small part of her wanted to make her father proud for once. That she really did want to prove her eighth grade teacher wrong when he'd said she should marry rich because it was the only shot she was ever going to get. Part of her just wanted to see something new, try something different. And another part saw how much his crew looked up to and respected him and wanted to be a part of that.

But she couldn't bring herself to say any of it.

He stared at her, waiting, for several moments before he sat back from his desk with a sigh, clearly disappointed.

"Okay, then, that'll have to do," he paused, giving her a long look, "I hope that's enough."

Jo shrugged again and dropped her gaze, forcing her feet to remain motionless on the ground.

The sound of a whistle filled the room and then, "Lieutenant, would you join me in my ready room, please?"

Jo turned to look at the door but Jim called her attention back.

"Yeoman?"

"Huh?" she answered, and then, at seeing his look, amended, "I mean, yes Captain?"

"Better," Kirk nodded with a smile and then pointed at her bracelets and rings, "those aren't exactly Starfleet Issue."

She glanced down and then moved to clasp her hands behind her back, her smile somewhere between 'been-caught-red-handed' and 'please-don't-be-mad'.

"Baby steps, sir."

Kirk raised an eyebrow in a way that showed he'd probably been hanging out with Spock too long and stood as the doors to his Ready Room swished open, "I'll let it slide today, but tomorrow I'll be expecting you to be up to _all _of Starfleet's Uniform standards."

"Well that's kind of hard to do when you don't know what they are."

"That, Yeoman, is what these are for," he came around his desk and took a pair of PADDs from Lieutenant Uhura, "this one was made up by my previous Yeoman, it details the specifics of your assignment here and any tips she might have thought fit to leave for you." Jo took the proffered object, "and this one details all the Starfleet Rules and Regs you'll be expected to abide by during your time aboard my ship."

Jo took the second PADD and quickly began scrolling through its contents, "Jim there's almost thirty-six pages of content here," she protested immediately and then, at his look added, "sir."

"Yeah," Jim nodded, returning to his desk, "I only had Uhura include the important ones."

Jo gave him a disbelieving look and then a slightly more horrified look to the PADD, "that's a lot of rules," she mumbled dejectedly.

Kirk hid a smile at her comment and cleared his throat, "You're excused from the bridge today. Go back to your quarters and study the contents of these two PADDs to the best of your ability," he gestured toward the other occupant of the room, "Lieutenant Uhura has been taking care of Yeoman responsibilities in the interim and will be stopping by your quarters after her shift today to clarify any questions you might have-"

"Captain," Uhura cut in, breaking her stoic demeanor with the vehement protest, but stopped herself short, as if suddenly remembering there was a junior crewmate in the room.

"Is that a problem, Lieutenant?" Kirk asked in a tone that indicated it better not be.

Uhura retracted the small step she'd taken forward and forced her arms to relax at her sides, holding her head high.

"No sir, any plans I may or may not have had can easily be rescheduled," she said, her voice remaining even. But Jo was standing close enough to her to see the muscles of her jaw twitch and had a sneaking suspicion there had _definitely _been plans set for that night.

_Great. I'm just making friends left and right aboard this ship._

_TBC_


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Thanks for continuing to have a good response to this fic. I'm still loving writing it. Enjoy! - pj

Joanna asked the computer to take her to her quarters and it started for the O-deck, wherever that was supposed to be, and she waited with something akin to apprehension for the door to open. When they finally did, an eternity later, she walked out into the corridor with her wide blue eyes taking in every detail. This deck was quiet and seemed somehow more livable than the rest of the ship. The hall was wide and the walls were a dark hue that felt warmer than the metallic, minimalist corridors she'd seen on other decks. She stopped at the first door from the turbo lift and looked at the plaque on the wall.

**_James T. Kirk  
Captain_**

Surprised, she glanced over her shoulder at the doors opposite and read the name there.

**_Spock  
Commander / Science Officer_**

She raised an eyebrow. So _that _was why it was called the O-deck. 'Officer's Deck'. She continued down to the next opening, which were pretty far down from the first two, and was surprised to see her name next to the door.

**_Joanna R. McCoy  
Yeoman_**

She bit her lip, suddenly feeling intimidated. Her quarters were next to the Captain's? Why hadn't she known that? Out of curiosity she glanced over her shoulder and saw the name on the opposite door.

**_Leonard H. McCoy  
Chief Medical Officer_**

She closed her eyes and bit her lip to keep from cursing out loud. Across the hall from her father?

Intimidated was the understatement of the century.

Jo stood staring at her doors for a few moments before she finally could bring herself to step inside. But when she did, she audibly gasped at the sight of it. She hadn't seen furniture this nice since her first home in Atlanta.

She glanced around, turning in a small circle to take it all in. She recognized several of the devices and technology spread around, most of it she'd only ever read about and some of it she'd been sure she'd only ever seen in theoretical essays, not that she'd ever admit to reading such a thing.

She wandered back to the bedroom and office, all fully furnished and her one bag containing everything she owned seemed small and insignificant in the large space. With a small, uncertain smile she took another look around, shrugged, and set the bag on the bed to take advantage of a moment to quickly change out of her Starfleet uniform .

"Much better," she informed the silence. Then she turned in a half circle, trying to remember where she'd left those PADDs. She could feel herself breaking out into a cold sweat just at the thought of reading all of those rules, but was determined to do it.

Would do it.

Even if there was only one person in the universe who thought she could.

She finally found the PADDs out in the main room, tossed haphazardly onto the sofa and at first was going to return to the office but changed her mind, instead opting to sit on the luxurious furniture for the first time.

"Oh," she sighed with a smile as the plush cushions enveloped her, "nice."

She held a PADD in each hand and scowled at the one with the 'Starfleet Regulations' title written across the bottom.

"Save the best for last," she said sarcastically, tossing that one aside and turned on the one from the previous Yeoman.

_Dear Joanna, _Jo stopped and rolled her eyes. 'Dear'? She didn't even know this person.

_The Captain just finished telling me about you and that is why I'm writing this letter. It's SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for the old Yeoman to give tips to the new Yeoman. It's kind of like tradition. I wouldn't usually write it like this but after what the Captain's told me, I thought something a little unorthodox was in order. _

"At least she got that right," Jo said to herself, glancing down at her 'unorthodox' clothing.

_To be honest, he didn't say much. But then Jim Kirk never does. I mean, he talks a lot, but he doesn't really say much. So listen carefully. You'll learn soon enough why his crew loves and respects him so much. There isn't anyone I'd rather have in my corner. _

Jo tilted her head, wondering what she meant by that. Trying to remember a time when she'd had someone 'in her corner' per se, in order to use as a point of comparison.

She couldn't think of any.

_Some things to remember about the Captain: he does not work well before 8am unless he's never gone to sleep in the first place so don't be put off if he's snappy and grumpy. _

"Sounds like me," Jo said, putting her feet up on the coffee table.

_On the Captain: He takes his coffee with two cream and two sugar ordinarily, but if he's been awake for too long he orders black. His mood is also changeable and his temper significantly shorter when he's tired so take the 'Black Coffee' order as the warning it is. He is notorious for avoiding sickbay, especially if he knows he needs to go, it's part of your job to make sure he does. Don't let him intimidate you, or at least try not to, but if he does anyway, call in the big guns. Dr. McCoy or Mr. Spock. Either one or sometimes both, are usually able to convince him to do what is necessary. I have attached in this file a copy of the Captain's schedule (when he receives reports from other departments, when meetings are held, etc.), you have to make sure he gets to his meetings on time, gets his paperwork done by the deadline and cover for him when he doesn't. Such is the life of the Yeoman. _

_The Yeoman is also responsible for answering calls that come in from Starfleet if the Captain is not available, that means you'll be talking to a lot of Admirals and high ranking SF brass. They're pushy and demanding and usually irritable. I'm not sure if this is just the way Admiral's are or if it's because Captain Kirk does not have the highest regard for Starfleet Regulations that anyone ever saw and that just rubs them the wrong way. Maybe a little of both.  
_

Joanna raised an eyebrow at that and threw an accusatory glance at the discarded PADD.

_But either way, don't let them get under your skin. It never ends well. You _must _always be polite and as accommodating as possible, but the Captain's orders come first. Unless it's a matter of Universal Annihilation, if the Captain says he cannot be disturbed, he _cannot _be disturbed.__ That being said, the captain likes to go on away missions. He's not supposed to so you'll get lots of ARRs (Automated Regulation Reminders) from SF. He never reads them so just save yourself some memory and delete them. _

_A word about the crew: You'll be spending a lot of time with the bridge crew, and it will take time for you all to adjust to eachother, but I thought I'd give you some pointers. Mr. Spock seems cold at first and, at least in my experience, that doesn't change much. But he is an exceptional officer, as anyone will tell you and he balances the Captain's...exuberance. Mr. Scott is fiercely protective of Engineering and you'll sometimes have to sensor the messages he leaves for the Captain regarding damage taken on during a missions in order to keep them _both _out of trouble. Mr. Sulu and Mr. Chekov are both very easy going, I've found them to be great friends, but Chekov is a card shark so be careful when they invite you to one of their poker games. Leut. Uhura takes some getting used to. But she's a good officer. Highly respected by her peers and unmatched in the excellence of her work. You could learn a lot from her. As for Dr. McCoy, well, I guess I don't have to tell you much about him, actually you could probably explain a few things to me on that front. _

Joanna rolled her eyes, "don't count on it."

_In Conclusion: Enjoy this post. I know the Captain wouldn't have approved you for it if you weren't capable and it is a privilege just to serve on the Enterprise, let alone work so closely with Captain Kirk. You'll learn a lot, you'll see a lot and you'll do a lot. When it's over I guarantee you'll have learned, not only a few things about Starfleet, but a few things about yourself. I'll always look back on my time on the Enterprise with fond memories and I hope you do the same. _

_Best Regards, _

_Former Yeoman Lindsey McPhearson_

Jo leaned back against the couch and dropped the PADD to her lap. It was a lot of good information. Good tips. Good stuff for her to know.

Unfortunately, it left her feeling like she would never be as good a Yeoman as this Lindsey McPhearson had been.

She blew out a long breath, blowing her hair out away from her face.

"Here goes nothing," she said and sluggishly reached for the second PADD.

"Starfleet Regulation Section One Subsection Alpha: A junior officer will always address senior officers as 'Sir' 'Ma'am' or their rank followed by their surname," she sighed, and closed her eyes. "This is going to be a _long _day."

---

"I just don't see why the _Athena_ can't handle it," Kirk practically whined, navigating the corridor's of his ship effortlessly and never looking up from the PADD in his hands.

"Starfleet feels it would be prudent for the Enterprise to be present at such a volatile diplomatic conference. The two sides have many generations of hostility between them, they feel we could be a stabilizing, neutral third party."

"What, so we're referees now?" Kirk said, finally looking up as they entered the turbolift and Spock told the computer their destination. He glanced over at his first officer and narrowed his eyes. Was that a hint of irritation he detected in Spock's expression?

"No Captain," Spock continued, his tone as neutral as before, "we're representatives of the Federation and the flagship of an Exploratory and _Peace Keeping _armada. We are merely being asked to carry out our standing orders to the fullest extent," he said, stopping abruptly outside his quarters and turning to face Kirk. "Which I have already explained to you, Captain. Twice." He punctuated the last statement with a raised eyebrow.

Yup, defiantly irritation.

"Everything alright Spock?" Kirk asked, his expression two parts concerned, one part amused.

The Vulcan turned to look at him as he swiped open his door.

"Why would it be otherwise, Captain?" he asked, the raised eyebrow now indicating that the very question was in itself a bit absurd.

Kirk wasn't buying it and stood studying his first officer for a moment before allowing his gaze to move away. If it were anyone else he would say the man seemed tense and possibly annoyed, but it was hard to tell with Spock because he always stood with his back that straight.

"I don't know, just, for a minute there you seemed-" he trailed off as his eyes settled on a tall, shaped glass object sitting on Spocks coffee table, "you play Chess?" He asked, brushing past the other man and approaching the game board.

"No," Spock answered simply, quelling the impulse to explain to Kirk that what he was looking at was not the same as the ancient game of Chess commonly played on Earth.

"Yeah, me neither," Kirk crouched low to get a better look, "not since I was like, nine. I was in a Chess Club for a few months, but they kicked me out," he commented, picking up one of the the pieces to study it, he didn't seem to realize he was still talking, "it was my mom's idea, thought it would keep me out of trouble." It looked like Chess, but no kind of Chess he'd ever played. The board was divided into seven square pieces on three different looked difficult and alien and strange. And kind of like fun.

Spock sounded interested, or as interested as a Vulcan could. "And did it?"

Kirk stood back up when he felt Spock come to stand beside him, and shrugged. "For a while."

"Until you were expelled."

Kirk nodded and then kind of grinned, "not my fault a bunch of old guys couldn't stand getting their asses handed to them by a nine-year-old kid."

Spock's eyebrow went up again, his version of surprise no doubt, and then looked back down at his 3D Chess board, "indeed."

Kirk's smirk was almost palpable but Spock refused to look at him.

"So…wanna play?" the younger man asked finally, unmasked excitement in his voice.

Spock seemed to consider it for a moment, "you are familiar with this version of Chess?"

It was enough of an invitation for Kirk and he went to the nearby dining table to exchange his PADD for a chair, and pulled it back over. "Not really, but I'm a quick study."

Spock tilted his head and moved to sit opposite of Kirk on the couch.

"That has yet to be determined, Captain."

Kirk grinned and watched as Spock set up his peices, carefully mimicking their positions with his own.

It was a challenge if he'd ever heard one.

---

"Go easy on the girl, Nyota," Christine Chapel gave her friend a teasing look, "you're scary as hell when you're pissed."

Uhura snorted as she stepped onto the Turbo Lift behind Chris. She'd taken a detour after her shift to the Mess Hall/Ten Forward instead of going immediately to the new Yeoman's quarters. She'd been hungry, dammit, and the 'Yeoman' could wait.

"And shouldn't I be?" Uhura ordered the Lift to take them to the Officer's deck, "the Yeoman position is highly sought after, _especially _on this ship. Not only does it allow you to pass out of _three _required Command Track courses at the Academy. I mean, The 'Yeoman' quarters alone are enough reason to be pissed. She isn't even in Starfleet and she gets one of the best rooms on the ship with a direct door to the Captain's quarters and-"

"That's what's bothering you, isn't it? _You_ want a direct door to the Captain's quarters," Chris teased, waggling her eyebrows.

Uhura gave her a horrified look and then rolled her eyes not allowing herself to be distracted by Chris' innocently suggestive words. "I'm just saying that Starfleet is built on the idea that someone _earns _everything they have. It's based on seniority and performance. Based on that criteria, she was exactly where she belonged. In the Brig. But because of who her father is and who _his _best friend is she's the new Yeoman for the Enterprise. It's not fair."

The lift doors opened and the two women stepped out. Uhura knew her anger was only partly due to the fact that the new Yeoman was a junior felon, and partly because she and Spock had been an alternating shifts for the past three weeks with her covering Communications and temporary Yeoman duties and she'd hardly seen him. But it did not change the fact that the anger was there. She'd been looking forward to spending some actual _time _with the vulcan that evening, that is, until Little Miss 'Federation's Most Wanted' showed up.

The lingering spark of irritation she felt that had been set earlier in the Captain's Ready Room, and subsequently calmed at dinner, flared up to full blown anger upon seeing the discreet green 'occupied' light on at Spock's door.

"Who ever said life was fair, Nyota?" Chris asked as they both came to a pause outside the Yeoman's quarters, "anyway, like I said, go easy on her. You never know, she might surprise you."

Uhura snorted again and watched as Christine made her way down the corridor to her own quarters, "Yeah, I'll take that bet."

Christine just shook her head.

Uhura sighed and took a few moments of standing outside the doors to wipe the glare off her face, then reached up and pressed the door chime.

"Come in."

Uhura stepped inside when the doors receded away from her and was immediately struck by the luxurious quarters, her anger renewing in her chest. It wasn't that these quarters were better than hers, it was that they were about the same that was the problem spacious living room with a separate bedroom and office space along with a dining area and it's own replicator. The furniture was some of the finest available and large windows along the port wall allowed thousands of stars to be seen from just about anywhere in the room.

"Lieutenant," Jo exclaimed, coming out of the adjoined office, "I'm so glad you're here, I have like a thousand questions."

Uhura was glad she wasn't a betting woman. She would have lost, because she was most certainly surprised.

Not only had Joanna changed from her Starfleet uniform into some gaudy green and orange sequined top and tight blue jeans and black boots, she'd exchanged the already unacceptable black bracelet and rings for long black wrist warmers and the tips of her hair, now loose, were red.

Her eyebrows must have hit her hairline.

Jo stopped upon seeing her look and looked down at herself, "oh. I, um, wanted to get a bit more comfortable."

Uhura tilted her head in acknowledgment and took a deep breath, "you said you had questions?"

"Oh yeah," Jo approached her with a PADD and proceeded to scroll through the list, asking for clarifications and suggestions on some regulations, but mostly for what certain acronyms stood for or what different alien words, for which there was no English translation, meant.

Uhura explained as patiently as possible, though she knew her answers came out clipt by the way Jo kept glancing at her out of the corner of her eye. Still, she had to admit, the girl asked intelligent questions, questions she wouldn't have needed to ask had she ever stepped foot inside the Academy, but intelligent questions nevertheless.

But by about the third time Jo had called her 'Uhura' instead of 'Lieutenant', she'd had enough.

"That's _Lieutenant _Uhura," she interrupted sharply.

Jo gave her a non-pulsed, bordering on irritated look, "Sorry. Lieutenant," she corrected herself, trying not to use her 'is it really _that _serious' tone, "like I said, I'm not one for titles so it's going to take some getting used to."

"Well get used to it," Uhura snapped, standing away from the desk they were sharing and shoving the data pad into Jo's hands, "because _most _people on this ship _earned _their rank and are proud to have it."

Jo just stared at her, a cross between stunned and pissed and unsure of how to respond. Uhura rolled her eyes at the girl's silence and turned to leave the room.

"I think that's enough studying for today, don't you?" she threw over her shoulder as she marched through the rooms toward the door.

Jo knitted her eyebrows and went after her, "I have one more question _Lieutenant _Uhura."

Uhura sighed, stopping just short of the door's motion sensors and closed her eyes, "what is it?"

"Did I do something to unintentionally piss you off?"

Uhura turned around to face the girl, standing a few feet away in her living room with her arms crossed over her chest, all her weight shifted to one foot, "excuse me?"

It was Jo's turn to roll her eyes, "I'm not blind, okay? And I'm not stupid. You've pretty much hated me since the moment I set foot aboard the ship. Did I steal your car once or something?"

Uhura's eyes narrowed minutely and she took a small step forward, "no, you didn't. Although the very fact that you ask that question, proves my point."

"Which is?"

"Which is that the Enterprise is Starfleet's flagship. The most sought after posting in the fleet with the most advanced technology and weaponry at it's disposal and manned by the best crew available. There are people who would rip off their own arm to get the Yeoman post aboard the Enterprise but you?" she raised one eyebrow and shook her head in something akin to disgust, "you don't even care. You don't want to be here. And you know what? You don't deserve to be."

Jo's mouth fell open at the harsh, coolly delivered words and she watched in silence as the Lieutenant turned and left her quarters, for the first time in a long time with no witty response hanging on her tounge.

_TBC_


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **Thanks for everyone that is continuing to read this. I was very entertained by the various reactions to both Jo and Uhura in the last chap, theirs is a relationship I intend to continue developing. So, for those of you who were looking for more: Enjoy! - pj

The bridge crew came on duty at 0800 on the dot, per their routine, and everyone's eyes lingered momentarily on the young woman standing to the right of the Captain's chair, staring expectantly at the turbo lift.

Uhura hardly recognized her.

Jo had once again traded in the outlandish and loud wardrobe of her off-duty hours for the Starfleet regulation red minidress and boots. This time she'd even shed the clunky jewelry and her hair was pinned back in such a way that one hardly noticed the red tips.

"Good morning Lieutenant," she said, nodding in her direction. Uhura narrowed her eyes as she returned the gesture, unsure if the new Yeoman was making an effort or just being sardonic.

Spock raised an eyebrow, and then continued on his way to his station, a reaction Jo had expected.

Her gaze lingered a moment on Chekov, mostly because his eyes jerked away from her so fast she thought they might give him whiplash. The next time he made eye contact she made a point of winking in his direction, just to see his cheeks blush red.

Sulu caught her messing with Chekov and smiled, shaking his head as he turned around, preparing to plot a course upon the Captain's command.

"I see you live up to your reputation, Yeoman," he said, his serious tone belying his playful words. He didn't turn around as his hands slid across the smooth planes of his console.

"Always, Lieutenant," Jo responded, hands folded neatly behind her back as she waited or the Captain's arrival, which was always 10 minutes behind his officers, whether by accident or design, he would never say.

Right on time, relatively speaking, the turbo lift doors swished open, revealing a well rested Captain Kirk. His eyes did their usual brief sweep across the bridge and landed on Jo's face, he smiled.

"Good morning everyone."

"Good morning, Captain," echoed around the glowing space as Kirk approached his chair.

"Yeoman," he nodded at Jo, a twinkle in his eye that made her sure she'd made the right choice.

"Captain," she nodded, allowing a small smile to escape through her lips, "Here is the day's schedule," she produced a PADD from somewhere on her person and placed it in his hands, "our newest orders from Starfleet and a mission request from Leut. Commander Rodgers. He wants to help negotiate with the people of Breal'Four on the trade agreement. Apparently he spent some time there a few years ago."

Kirk scrolled through the contents of the PADD while she spoke, her voice even and businesslike just as she imagined a Yeoman ought to sound.

"Mr. Sulu, plot a course for the Haitain system, Warp One."

Jo paused while Sulu plotted the course, "You also have a meeting with department heads at 0930, a communiqué with Admiral Chioce at 1300 and Engineer Scott asked for five minutes. Any five minutes."

"Five minutes with Scotty is the same as twenty," Kirk quipped, handing the PADD back to her, Jo took it and swiftly replaced it with a second PADD, "you have to sign off on these mission reports before they're sent to Starfleet as well as a new entry in your Captain's log."

Kirk took it and nodded and Jo kept a smile to herself. She knew practicing this routine in the mirror would pay off.

"And here's your coffee." She said, producing the steaming liquid from behind her, "two creams and two sugars, right?" the uncertainty bubbling below the surface showed through a bit and Kirk gave her a reassuring smile.

"That's right." He paused, "well done, Yeoman. You studied hard, I take it."

"Harder than I'd like to admit, Captain," she smiled, as Kirk took a sip of the coffee.

He winced when the scalding coffee burnt his tongue, and contorted his face as the gross mixture slid down his throat.

"What's wrong?" Jo asked immediately, noticing the Captain making an effort not to gag. "I got it wrong, didn't I?"

He started to shake his head, raising his hand to stop her but was still working on swallowing.

"I did. I can't believe this," she sounded more annoyed than upset, "I _knew _this was gonna happen-"

"Jo-"

"This is why you don't cram before exams because you're bound to forget something and next thing you know you've failed and your car is getting taken away for a month."

"Jo," Kirk said again, this time catching her attention, "relax. I'm not going to court marshal you for getting my coffee wrong."

"It's just that I went over that letter like a hundred times and I can't believe I got that wrong and I-"

"Joanna. _Relax_."

She paused long enough to realize the crew was quite obviously trying not to be obvious about staring again, and winced, "how much?"

He grinned, discretely placing the coffee on the arm of his chair, "breathe, okay? You're doing great. No intergalactic incidents."

"Yet," she retorted quietly, and collected the PADDs he handed her and turned to make a swift exit to the ready room.

Kirk watched her go and then, seeing the Yeoman was safely out of earshot, he turned to Spock, "how does someone mess up _replicated _coffee?"

Spock merely raised an eyebrow, unable to come up with a satisfying answer.

---

Joanna emerged three hours later, having finally finished updating all the crew requisition forms and interdepartmental logs to the absolute best of her ability, then gone back through and made the corrections Uhura pointed out.

Now she had to make sure the Kirk updated his personal log and had signed off on all the reports she needed to transfer to Starfleet.

"Captain, I need…" she trailed off. The captain wasn't in his chair, and a quick glance around confirmed that he wasn't even on the bridge. Neither was Spock.

"Um, where's Jim?" She asked Sulu, who looked a little small and uncomfortable in the Captain's chair.

"Went to the planet. Something about the native drink being as close to real scotch as we're gonna get," Sulu said, replying to a communication that had come up on the MessageLink on the Arm of the chair.

"We outta just face it Sulu, our Captain is a frat boy," Uhura said from her seat a few feet behind.

Jo's instinct was to be offended on Jim's behalf, even if it was technically accurate. But something in the Lieutenants voice, coupled with the responding smirk from Sulu, held her back.

And left her feeling thoroughly confused.

"Okay," she said slowly, "but I thought the Captain wasn't supposed to leave the ship?" she said it as a question because she'd read so many Starfleet regulations in the past two days she really wasn't sure which ones were real and which ones she'd made up.

Sulu grinned, Uhura rolled her eyes, Chekov chuckled and Jo frowned.

"What'd I miss?"

Sulu just shook his head so Jo let the matter drop, a more pressing issue was at hand, "well, he's got a communiqué with Admiral Chioce at one...I mean," she paused, "1300."

She looked first to Uhura, hoping to hear something along the lines of 'don't worry; I'll take care of it'. To her chagrin, but not much surprise, Uhura gave her an insincere smile, shrugged, and turned back around to her station. She looked helplessly to Sulu.

"You're gonna have to take care of it, Yeoman." Sulu said, sounding more commanding than he had all morning.

Jo bit her lip and glanced at Chekov, who managed to look both sympathetic and nervous.

"Well, that's just great," she said in a tone that indicated it really wasn't, "an Admiral?"

Sulu shrugged one shoulder and gave her the kind of smile you give someone when you feel bad for them, but not much.

"If you wanna learn to swim, you gotta jump in the water."

"Or get thrown in," Jo grumbled but took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. The bridge had gone quiet, and while no one of them would say it out loud, she knew the consensus of most of the crew was that she wouldn't last a week aboard this ship, let alone carrying out the duties of the high pressure, low appreciation post of Yeoman.

Well, she'd show them.

"Lieutenant Uhura, please transfer the Admiral's communication to the Captain's Ready Room, I'll take it there," she swung around to return the way she'd come, walking as brisk as she could without looking like she was running.

---

"Are we taking bets on how bad this goes?" Uhura asked, pulling the mic from her ear and pressing a button to put the communiqué on speaker.

Chekov spun around in his seat, wondering what she was referring to, but just as he opened his mouth to ask, Jo's voice began broadcasting on the bridge.

_"Um, Greetings Admiral,"_ Jo began, sounding nervous and uncertain, two adjectives he would have never thought to associate with the no-nonsense, strong-willed girl, capable of going head to head with their very own Captain.

_"Who the hell are you?"_ Admiral Chioce responded. Chekov winced, he'd known Admiral Chioce while he was at the Academy. Talk about being thrown to the wolves…

_"I'm Jo. I mean, sorry. I'm Yeoman Jo McCoy. I'm new." _

_"I couldn't tell,"_ the sarcasm in her voice was scathing and Uhura covered her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

Chekov glanced around the bridge to see most of the on-duty officers reacting much the same way, exchanging quick eyerolls or attempting to hide smiles. Even Sulu, who was busy correcting the replacement pilot's technique, couldn't help the smile slipping across his face.

Chekov didn't really think it was all that funny.

_"Where is Captain Kirk?" _

_"He's um, he's actually unavailable at the moment. I can-"_

"That's enough," Chekov said loudly, his anger catching everyone off guard. When Uhura didn't immediately move he stood from his chair and walked across the bridge. Thrusting out a slender finger, he pointed at Uhura's console, "Shut it off."

Uhura wasn't used to seeing him this way. The young man was usually like a puppy, game for anything and eager for approval. Right now he didn't look like any baby animal. He looked pissed.

And she was so surprised by that fact, that she complied without question.

---

Jo stood staring at the Captain's chair for a good two minutes before she actually convinced herself to sit down. When she'd been working in the ready room earlier she'd sat on the couch by the wall.

It was comfortable and she could look out at the stars from time to time when her eyes started to defocus at all the small orange letters on black background.

Finally she rolled her eyes at herself, "it's just a chair," she mumbled, ignoring the fact that she was talking to herself out loud, "just the _Captain's_ chair," she unfurled her fists, wiped her palms on her skirt and turned the chair toward her.

"But the Captain's not here, gonna have to talk to him about that later," she slowly sat herself down on the ergonomically correct, worth-more-credits-than-my-life desk chair, "and since he saw fit to leave the Bridge during my first full day duty knowing full well he had a communiqué with the most Hardass admiral in the fleet," she took a deep breath to cut off her own rant, "I'm just going to have to take care of it."

She took a deep breath, swallowed hard, folded her hands in front of her on the desk and stared at the blank screen.

And nothing happened.

She checked the chronometer, 1301. She frowned.

"Shouldn't Admiral's be prompt?" she grumbled, sitting back in the chair and crossing her arms.

"I'm sorry, do you have someplace better to be?"

Jo squeaked and almost jumped clear out of the seat.

"Oh, uh," she cleared her throat and quickly sat forward in an attempt to look more professional, "um, greetings Admiral."

"Who the hell are you?"

Jo drew back and bit her tongue from ripping off with the first smart ass comment that came to mind.

_I'm Joanna McCoy and I'm the intergalactic screw up that managed to be on time to this little bureaucratic keg party who the hell are _you_?_

"I'm Jo," the woman's grey eyes narrowed and Jo paused, quickly reviewing all the Starfleet regulations she'd read over the past few hours in her head._ Oh right,_ "I mean, sorry. I'm Yeoman Joanna McCoy, I'm new."

"I couldn't tell," the Admiral said with a barely contained eyeroll.

_Oh bite me you old bat._

Admiral Chioce, a grandmother looking woman with short, curled blonde hair reminiscent of Centruries past, and sharp grey eyes tilted her chin to give Jo a disinterested, mildly irritated glare, "where is Captain Kirk?"

_On an alien planet sampling the booze_, Jo thought, "He's um, he's unavailable at the moment, I can take a message."

That was, apparently, the wrong thing to say.

"If I wanted to leave a message I would have sent a MessageLink," the woman snapped and Jo raised an eyebrow.

"Well I'm sorry for the inconvenience Admiral, but the Captain is unavailable at this time and you can either choose to leave a message with me, or try to send him another communiqué later," Jo said, her back rigid and tone professional. Was it in her head or was this Admiral provoking her?

"Well what time would you suggest, _Yeoman_?" The woman stressed the last part, as if to remind her of her place.

_Oh yeah, definitely provoking._

"Tell you what: don't call us, we'll call you." She smiled overly brightly and ended the transmission.

Two seconds later it hit her what she'd just done.

"Oh shit."

_TBC_


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Just realized how long it's been since I posted and quickly whipped this out so people would know I'm still alive. lol. Enjoy! - pj

The Captain returned from his impromptu away mission almost an hour later, but Jo waited to tell him about her 'conversation' with the admiral until it was almost the end of their shift. She made sure she'd first helped him complete all the post mission reports, and all they had left to do was file the Captain's personal log, which he seemed to like to do on his own.

She stood up to leave after he'd dismissed her, but hesitated in front of his desk.

Jim glanced up after a moment, eyebrows raised, "something else?"

Jo nodded once and cleared her throat, "I, uh, think I may have pissed of Admiral Choice."

"Chioce." He corrected.

"Okay, _not_ what's important right now, Jim," she'd been careful to call him 'Captain' all day, so the slip into informality struck him as strange. Obviously this was bothering her, a conclusion which was supported by her tensely balled fists, so he gave her his full attention.

"What'd you do?"

She took a step back and tried to look offended, "what makes you think _I-"_ she stopped at his raised eyebrow and sighed, "I hung up on her."

He stared at her silently for a moment, "that it?"

"Yes… No…mostly."

"What else?"

She shifted on her feet and crossed and uncrossed her arms, glancing around the cabin in an attempt to look disinterested but failing miserably, "I told her 'don't call us we'll call you'."

Jim gave her a look, "and what did she say?"

"Um," she shook her head, "I-"

"Hung up on her, right," he lowered his eyes to his desk for a moment and Jo waited with stiff-backed apprehension for the explosion, ready to defend her actions vehemently should she need to.

The Admiral had been a royal jerk after all.

Her mouth nearly dropped open when he looked back up at her and was grinning.

"I think you're going to fit in here just fine," he said, a mischievous sparkle he was known for in his eyes.

Jo was appalled, "you're encouraging this kind of behavior? I thought I was supposed to get reformed on this ship."

Jim's grin cocked to one side and he shrugged, "I'll take care of Admiral Chioce. You go get something to eat, try to relax and get some sleep tonight. I'll see you here bright and early and 0800 tomorrow."

Jo gave him a look, her disbelieving scowl slowly turning to a reluctantly amused smile, because not even she was completely immune to JTK charm.

"Yes sir." She turned to leave, suddenly aware of how hungry she was and wondering what was being replicated in the Caf.

"Oh and Jo," he called, and she turned back to him, "all new crewmembers are required to go through a physical and update their medical records with the CMO," he made a point to make eye contact, "Yeomen included."

And just like that, the good feeling was gone.

"But-"

"No buts, this is one regulation you can't break, Jo."

Jo sighed, her shoulders slumping, "Fine."

"That's more like it."

"Yeah, yeah," she muttered, exiting the Ready Room to the bridge.

Kirk smile faded as he shook his head, "can't avoid him forever, Joey."

---

As far as Jo was concerned, getting sustenance was more important than a physical so, naturally, the Caf was her first stop. She walked up to the counter and took a tray and watched in semi horror as strange colored, possibly still living things were piled onto her plate.

She gave the wiggly green things that were trying to escape into her mashed potatoes a wary look and looked up at the servers, "got any pizza?"

She wasn't sure what all of those words meant, but the answer seemed to be unanimous. So she swiped a tame looking bottle of orange juice from the cooler, deposited her entire untouched tray into the recycling chamber and was about to leave for a properly replicated meal in her quarters when a blonde head of curls caught her eye.

She smiled and effortlessly weaved her way through the thinning crowd to a small table near the windows.

"I hear you stuck up for me earlier, on the bridge," she commented as she sat down, opening her orange juice to take a swig.

"Oh," Chekov put down a PADD and gave her a nervous smile, "hello, Yeoman. Um, yes, vell, I," he cleared his throat and shifted on his seat, concentrating on his nearly empty tray in front of him, "I know what it's like to be picked on because you're differ'nt. Because people assume somezing about you that isn't necessarily true."

Jo smiled at his empathy, absently scratching at the label on her bottle, "yeah…well people are usually right about me so..." she shrugged.

Chekov, in a moment of uncharacteristic self-assurance shook his head, a few curls bobbing on his forehead and looked her in the eye, "they veren't today."

Jo held his gaze and gave him a real smile for the first time. The young Ensign felt his heart rate speed up exponentially at the sight of it.

"So what are you working on there?" She broke eye contact and leaned across the table to get a glance at his PADD.

"Trigonometry," he said, pushing it toward her, "it relaxes me."

"Relaxes you?" Jo repeated disbelievingly, giving a quick glance at the figures and immediately deciding it was far over her head, "what's wrong with a beer and counting sheep?"

Chekov laughed quietly, gazing down at the elegant numbers, "I always liked math."

"Really? Did you study it in school?" Jo reached up to unpin her hair, causing the uneven strands to fall down, draping one side of her face.

"Oh, uh, no," he replied, trying to keep his mind on the conversation. He'd never seen hair that color before, "I mostly studied engineering and physics, but math usually vent hand in hand so, I used it a lot. You?"

"No, not really," she shook her head and flipped the long hair away from her face, "I had other priorities in school."

"Like vhat?"

The twinkle in Jo's eyes turned a little bit dangerous. It reminded Chekov of when someone told Dr. McCoy the Captain was keeping an injury from him.

"Making my mother's life a living hell," she said with a haunted grin.

"Oh," he wasn't sure what to say to that, so he went back to finishing up what little was left of the food on his plate.

"Yeah, not exactly a noble calling but it was mine," Jo shrugged, turning her head to look out at the stars, talking almost without realizing it, "getting called out of a charity ball to bail your delinquent daughter out of jail is bound to put a damper on anyone's night."

"But…you seem so smart," Chekov said after a moment, he seemed deeply troubled by what she said, "vy would you do zat?"

She hesitated and got a cloudy look in her eyes, "to get her to look _at_ me instead of _through_ me," she swallowed hard and turned back to Chekov, blushing slightly to realize how much she'd said. She didn't usually do that.

She never did, actually. But there was something…unassuming about the young ensign. Something patient and calming.

Something she liked.

"Did it vork?" Chekov asked with more understanding in his voice than she expected.

"Sometimes," she took a breath and shifted in her chair, "what about you?" He gave her a confused look and she clarified, "your equation. Did it _vork_?"

He smiled good-naturedly at her teasing and looked back down at the PADD in his hands, "Yes. I believe it vill."

Jo's smile brightened when his eyes shone with glee and she nodded, flipping her hair in an unintentionally flirty way, "Good to hear Chekov."

He dropped his eyes and shifted a little and Jo frowned.

"What is it?"

He cleared his throat, "I vas just thinking, it might be alright if you vanted to call me by my first name."

"But I thought Chekov was-" she stopped. _Right. It's _Surname_ and Rank_, "okay, what's your full name?"

"Pavel Andreievich Chekov."

Her eyebrows flew up, "that's a mouthful." A cockeyed grin somewhat reminiscent of a friendlier, prettier version of McCoy's half-mouthed scowl took her lips and she repeated the name back to him. He nodded that she had pronounced it acceptably.

"Andreievich like…Andre? Or Andy?"

Chekov frowned, "No, well, I don't know. No one has ever called me zat before."

She smiled and shifted one leg beneath her, "well, I won't call you that if you don't want me to. I'm just a huge fan of nicknames."

"But I thought nicknames had to do with a characteristic of the person. It's vy people call me 'whiz kid' and sings like zat."

"Well, yeah, in the traditional sense, but I like to use regular names as nicknames. My friend Kelly, I always called her Susan. And my mom's boyfriends were always Felix, no matter what their real names were."

"Like your fazer always calls the captain 'Jim', even though his name is James."

She nodded enthusiastically, "exactly."

Chekov seemed thoughtful for a moment and then nodded, "Okay. I wouldn't mind if you called me zat."

Jo grinned and Chekov blushed.

"Cool," she said, biting her lip in a nervous way he didn't quite understand. "Well, I guess I'll let you get back to your work," she gestured at his PADD, "but I'll see you around, right?"

"Of course. We work ze same shift on ze bridge."

"Right," she sighed and after a moment, moved to stand. "See you tomorrow, Andy."

Chekov smiled and gave a slight nod, "goodnight Yeoman McCoy."

"Jo," she said softly, "call me Jo."

He nodded, "goodnight Jo."

Chekov watched her leave and didn't get another thing done for the rest of the evening.

_TBC_


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** I know I don't say it enough, but thank you SO much to everyone who reviews! It makes all the blood, sweat and tears that go into writing a fic more than worth it. Haha. I don't have the time to respond to each review personally but I LOVE to read about what you all liked, and you know, the more I know what you like, the more I can write what you like, so it's like a win win! Yay! Enjoy! - pj

There was a method to Jo's madness, hunger hadn't been the only reason she chose to go get something to eat before stopping in sickbay. She knew better than to show her face on the bridge the following morning without having gone for her physical, but she deliberately chose to come during the Gamma shift, hoping her father would not be around and she could complete her mandatory physical in peace. But fate was not on her side. He was still there and, when she thought about it, that shouldn't have surprised her. He was _always _working.

She spotted him just as she came through the doors, talking to an orderly and exchanging a MediPad for a cup of coffee.

Jo immediately ducked away from the entrance to a shadowed area beside a BioBed on the other side of Sick Bay, hopping up with her back to where her father was entering the room.

"May I help you?" A nurse appeared beside her and Jo smiled pleasantly, making a great effort not to turn her head.

"Hi. I'm Joanna. I'm here for my physical," she said quietly and as nonchalant as she could, hoping he would finish his conversation and leave.

But when had she ever been that lucky?

"Okay," the nurse was young, with striking white hair that was slicked back and braided exotically, it reminded Jo of something she'd seen in _Vogue _recently, "when did you come on board?"

Jo opened her mouth to answer but never got the chance.

"Two days ago," said a gruff voice with a thick Southern drawl which she usually tried to hide. "I'll take it from here Nurse Bowen."

Jo sighed heavily as she watched the nurse go.

"Isn't this a conflict of interest or something?" She huffed, turning back around to face her father, sure he would throw out the 'I'm CMO and I have to sign off on everything anyway' Card.

He didn't.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked, shifting uncomfortably. Her father's blue eyes bore right into her. It reminded her of the way the principal of her school used to look at her. Like he could see right through her.

"Your Medical History arrived today."

Jo frowned, "Okay…anything good?"

McCoy's eyes narrowed, "what happened August 14, 2267?"

The shutters on Jo's eyes slammed shut and she clenched her jaw, but didn't respond.

"You were admitted to Atlanta General Hospital for injuries to your arms and legs as well as-"

"I remember," Jo cut him off harshly and looked away, flipping her hair out of her eyes and shrugged, "I fell out of a tree," she said flatly.

"A tree." McCoy repeated.

"Yeah. A tree," she said, looking at him, daring him to argue, "The carnival was in town. I wanted to go."

McCoy never broke eye contact, "Joanna I've heard better lies from lobotomized Zamari."

Jo tracked the bleeps on a BioBed across the room with sharp blue eyes, "I like the Carnival, same as anybody."

McCoy sighed in exasperation, tossing the MediPad onto the bed beside her, "Jo, your injuries were inconsistent with the kind sustained from a fall."

Jo merely glared at him, her mouth clamped shut.

"Why don't you just tell me the truth-"

"Gee _Dad_, I don't know," she cut him off, her eyes flashing, "Why weren't you there?"

With that she hopped of the BioBed, not wanting to see the look of shock ad hurt on his face. By the time McCoy had the presence of mind to call her back, she was already gone.

---

Jo had calmed down by the time she got to her quarters, and the adrenalin high of her first day of duty had long since worn off, leaving her feeling drained and exhausted.

Just as she was almost to her door, the door across the hall and nearer to the turbo lift opened, revealing a slightly disheveled looking Uhura.

Jo glanced behind and saw her and clenched her jaw, turning to quicken her pace to her door.

"Yeoman!"

Jo closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath.

"Look Lieutenant, I'm sorry for whatever it is that I did, but I really don't have-" she began, her temper not so much 'in check' as she simply didn't have the energy to show it.

"Actually," Uhura cut her off and Jo looked at her a bit harder. If she didn't know any better she'd say the Lieutenant looked uncomfortable. Even ashamed. A far cry from the cocky, self-righteous woman she was used to seeing, "I'm the one that needs to apologize."

Jo frowned, "Oh. Okay…why?"

Uhura cleared her throat, "for the stunt I pulled earlier. With your um, communiqué with the Admiral."

Jo squared her shoulders, a bit of her usual bravado back in place. A flash of the memory of coming back out onto the bridge after ending the communication and catching rolled eyes scornful smiles thrown in her direction flittered through her mind, "what about it?"

"I was out of line. That's not how a Starfleet officer should act. So I'm apologizing," she finished and with some effort brought her eyes to Joanna's, her back ramrod straight and shoulders square, ready to take anything Jo saw fit to throw at her.

Jo's mouth hung open. That was something she had not thought she'd hear. Ever.

"Oh," she said again, thinking she probably ought to have something more intelligent to say, "Um, okay. You're uh…forgiven." She said. Uhura hesitated and then nodded curtly, making her way down to the door to her quarters. Jo's gaze followed her, her brow still marred in confusion.

Her wits finally returning to her, Jo spoke up before the Lieutenant disappeared inside her quarters.

"Lieutenant," she called, Uhura seemed to hesitate before she looked over, her eyebrows raised in question, "thanks."

The smallest of smiles crossed the Uhura's face and she entered her quarters.

---

Jo sat in a chair near a science station on the port side of the bridge, a stylus clutched in her fingers while she animatedly talked to Ensign Larana, a young half-Orion with the characteristic green skin but the much rarer blonde hair and black eyes she shared with her mother. Jo was catching her up on the most recent developments of The Real Housewives of Meridian Twelve while all the Senior Staff was off in a Meeting.

"And then she was all 'the Emperor can kiss whoever he wants, but she's sub-standard by any cultural ideas," Jo said, flawlessly imitating the sharp Meridi accent and waggling her head to emphasize the point.

"Oh my gosh," Larana laughed, her purple eyes sparkling, "that's a scathing accusation from someone who's never been off her own planet."

"I know right?" Jo shook her head, absently scrolling through the information displayed on her PADD. "So how come you haven't seen it lately? The Captain being a slave driver again?" she teased.

"No, you know that's not Kirk's style" the woman shrugged, "it's just not considered a priority for deep space transmissions."

"Are you serious?" Jo squeaked, trying to come to terms with this information, "And what, pray tell, _is_ considered priority?"

"Oh, insignificant little things like distress signals, Confidential Communiqués from Starfleet and transmissions from families of the crew."

Jo cringed and turned around slowly as Larana dutifully snapped back to her station.

"Captain," she smiled as innocently as she could, "you're done with your Staff meeting." She stood, fighting not to bite her lip. Over her shoulder she saw Spock raise an eyebrow in her direction as he slid into her seat and Chekov and Sulu were in deep discussion as they took the helm.

"Very good Yeoman," Jim nodded, his face and tone stern enough to make her draw herself up to her full height, "do you have that file that I asked about?"

Jo nodded, "yes sir, here you go," she handed him the PADD. Jim seemed a bit surprised and almost immediately the rigid set of his shoulders relaxed.

"Thanks," he started across the bridge, Jo tossing an 'I'm so busted' look over her shoulder at Larana, who gave her a sympathetic smile, and turned to follow him.

"Yeoman."

"Sir?"

"Mr. Scott missed the Senior Staff meeting, head down to Engineering and see if you can find him." He said, sitting in his chair, sifting through the information on the PADD.

"Why can't we use the ship communications?" Jo asked, pointing at the panel on the arm of his chair.

Jim looked up with a narrowed eyed smirk, "nice try Jo, but knowing Scotty he's probably elbow deep in Enterprise's antimatter converter assembly. You're gonna have to find him yourself."

Jo's shoulders slumped, knowing she had no choice, "but Jimmy, it smells like sweat and Dilithium down there."

"Jo," Jim warned, raising one eyebrow.

"Fine, you win," she sighed heavily, and turned toward the turbo lift.

"I'm captain," he said after the doors closed, grinning self-satisfied and leaning back in his chair, "I always win."

_TBC_


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Okay, there is something seriously wrong with the Doc upload screen on , but I'm using my very minimal knowledge of computer code to try and get this out there so I hope it makes it and I hope you like! As always, many many thanks to all who take the time to read, and especially those that review, you make my little Trekkie world go round! Enjoy! - pj

"Engineer Scott?" Jo called out. The junior techs in the front had merely pointed, back into the bowels of the ship filed with miles of titanium tubes and electro-diluted cable wiring, when she asked about the whereabouts of the senior engineer.

She'd been walking for ten minutes and had yet to see any sign of him. Somewhere in the distance an alarm was sounding, a coolant pipe kept releasing loud steam overhead and a strange, cool and sweet scent was growing stronger the further she went.

"Enginee-"

A loud clanging to her right, followed by a colorful curse, made her turn.

"Engineer Scott?"

"Aye, you've found 'im," he griped.

She followed the voice around a huge blinking rubber protrusion in the floor to find the man elbow deep in a cobbled together looking generator. It was the source of the strange scent shed been smelling, and Mr. Scott had one finger in his mouth.

"This is punishment, i'nt it? For not recharging your nacelles at the last dockin' post? I tol' ya we di'nt have time lass." he explained, his head tilted back, addressing no one.

"Mr. Scott?" Jo said hesitantly, at this point no longer completely convinced as to the man's mental stability.

"Ach, call me Scotty," he corrected, turning to emerge his head back into the open panel.

"And hand me the spare power pack for the 3k volt magnetic organizer, will ya?"

Jo looked at the pile of strange looking tools and parts strewn about on the floor and took a wild guess as to which one he wanted.

She assumed she had not chosen correctly when he came back out, gave her a look that said _he_ was questioning _her_ mental stability, and grabbed a completely different device.

Jo frowned and squatted beside him, "what's that smell?"

"That, dear girl, is anti-matter conduction gel. Highly electric, be careful."

Jo peeked under his arms to see his hands reaching out precariously over a flowing river of the dangerous gel.

"Shouldn't you be wearing gloves?"

Scotty pulled back to give her another one of those looks, to which she responded with a shrug, and he returned to his work.

"So what brings you to these parts, Yeoman?"

"Oh," Jo stood, remembering why shed come, she was oddly fascinated by the way Scotty's nimble fingers moved about inside the tiny conduits, "The Captain wants to know why you missed the Staff Meeting this morning."

"Aye, he does, does he?" He grumbled a few things in words she could hear only well enough to know she shouldn't repeat it, "well you tell the captain that if he wants to come down here and run diagnostic codes on every blinkin' cable running to C Deck to find out why the door chimes are barkin' like Centroidian Mud Monkeys, to let me know and I'll fine time for his precious staff meetin's."

Jo frowned, "Really?" there goes that look again.

"Give me that CSCAD emitter there."

Jo raised her eyebrows and reached out.

"Little more to the left."

"The other left. With the green light."

"The long white one with the green light."

"Aye, thas'it Lass."

Jo smiled, "One CSCAD emitter, coming right up."

---

"So we dock at Starbase 23 in two days." Jim said, pouring himself another snifter of Bourbon from the small cabinet above Bones' replicator, it always held some sort of alcoholic treasure.

"Mm," McCoy grumbled, staring into his own Bourbon, motionless.

Jim frowned; McCoy hated docking at the outer lying Starbases. He always complained the on-staff doctors were so starved for companionship they were always 'inviting him to dinner and poker games and wouldn't leave him the hell alone to wallow in bourbon and medical journals in peace'. It was a sure fire topic to get McCoy riled up and hadn't gotten the slightest reaction.

Jim knew his friend hadn't had enough to mellow him that much. Hell, he wasn't sure there was enough Bourbon in the galaxy for that.

"Bones," He tried, sipping his drink and wandering along the bookshelves, aimlessly admiring a few paintings of thoroughbreds from the McCoy Ranch back on Earth home.

"Bones!" he said again louder, when McCoy showed no sign of hearing him.

"Jesus Jim," McCoy said, he'd been about to sip and the man's outburst startled him into splashing some of the amber drink onto his shirt. He stood up, glaring at his companion and reached for a towel in the kitchenette.

"C'mon Bones, what's with you? You've had the personality of a wet cat for the past three days." He complained.

Bones gave him a long look and finished off his drink.

"Is there problem with your staff? With me?" he guessed, following McCoy through the common area of the quarters, down the hallway to the office, "was your request for a new shipment of Penicillin delayed or something?"

Jim was just buzzed enough to find his friend's mood amusing instead of concerning, but the next words from the grouchy doctor wiped the smile from his face.

"No, its Jo," McCoy grabbed a PADD from his desk and shoved it into the young Captain's hands, "read this."

Jim frowned, scrolling through the data, all humor dyeing from his face.

"Bones, what the hell is this?" he asked quietly, as the Doctor took his glass from his hand and finished it off.

"Exactly what it looks like. It's a part of Jo's medical record. Specifically, the part from August 24, 2267." McCoy called over his shoulder, walking back out to the common to refill the glass.

"Bones this says…does this say what I think it says?" he looked up, his face marred with uncertainty and unease.

"Yeah, kid, it does."

Jim shook his head, looking back down at the PADD in his hands, a muscle flexing beneath the skin of his jaw.

"I did more digging," McCoy continued, swishing around the ice in his glass, something violent building beneath the surface of his controlled expression, "her grades started to slip that year. It's also the year she started getting in trouble in school and, later, with the law."

Jim's eyebrows furrowed, "so what changed? She was only, what? Eleven?"

"Ten," McCoy supplied, "her mother remarried that year."

Jim nodded and scrolled back up to the date of the file. "She didn't fall from any tree, did she," Jim said his tone dark.

"No."

"Then what happened?" Jim demanded, clicking through the information furiously, needing information as much as McCoy needed to have it to give.

"I don't know!" McCoy exploded, chucking the empty class at the wall and turning to brace himself against the counter.

Startled, Jim stared only stared. An emotional outburst wasn't unusual from McCoy, but a violent one certainly was.

"Som'bitch trying to take my place beat my kid, Jim," Bones said, sounding winded and defeated. "The bastard beat her badly enough that she needed to go to the hospital and _I wasn't there_." He took a deep breath and rubbed his face, "she won't tell me anything else."

Jim looked back down at the PADD and then nodded, setting it on the table. "Look, I know this isn't what you want to hear-"

"Then don't say it."

"But," Jim persisted, "it's what you _need_ to hear."

After a few calming deep breaths, Bones turned around, his arms crossed over his chest and his jaw clenched tightly, "what?"

"Let her come to you," Jim said, continuing quickly, "She will, Bones, I promise. But if you try to push her you'll only make it worse," his blue eyes grew shadowed and his voice dropped, "Trust me, I know what I'm talking about."

_TBC_


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** YAY!!! The Doc Upload screen is working again. It wasn't actually a problem with my computer, but with the site. No matter what i did it uploaded my chapter as one big block of text so I had to go in and add paragraph breaks manually, not something I will be doing again any time soon, let me tell you! lol. But now it's better. Sorry to anyone who thought chapter nine was up already, I uploaded 8 twice because of the upload problem and had to delete the second version. So anyway, here is the REAL chapter nine, thanks to everyone that is still reading it, I SO love hearing from you all! Enjoy! - pj

Jo finally understood what everyone meant when they said the 'space fever' would get to her. That it was inevitable. It got to everyone at some point and she would have to work though it.

Jo hadn't believe them. She was sure she was stronger.

She was wrong.

And today she was two seconds shy of screaming, baking a cake the size of a car or heading down to engineering to see what she could set on fire.

_Boredom does strange things to people_, she concluded, leaning casually against the Captain's chair and wondering if it was possible to literally climb walls. She decided she would need to shut off the gravity first and then set to figuring out how she might get Ensign Thad away from his station long enough for her to figure out how to do that.

"Yeoman."

She looked up automatically. Jim, Uhura and Spock were all crammed into the turbo lift, on their way to a diplomatic negotiation on Ammor, the planet they were orbiting.

"Sir?"

"Feel like tagging along?"

Her face brightened immediately.

"Really?"

Jim shrugged, "sure. They're supposed to throw us a party after the negotiations are settled and you can only survive on replicated pizza for so long."

Jo grinned and practically tumbled over herself trying to get to the turbo lift at light speed, packing herself in between Spock and Uhura with glee.

Jim smiled, "Mr. Sulu, you have the con."

---

The Jim Kirk Curse. Everyone had heard of it. There were whispers of it in the corridors every time the Captain came back to the ship (never when he left because no one wanted to jinx him) of how it had either come true or failed. It was not usually the latter.

Jo had been on board for several weeks now and was quiet familiar in the JTKC, as some called it. She knew Sulu was a weary believer in it, Uhura a vocal one, Spock never had much of anything to say about it and McCoy, well, no one had ever been dumb enough to mention the Curse around the CMO so she wasn't sure.

As for Jo, she had never believed in the curses. She believed in herself and not much else and that had suited her just fine up until then.

But how else could she explain how quickly everything had all gone to hell if not for the famed Kirk Curse?

Jo covered her ears and screamed as laser-fire resounded around the room. Tables and chairs were knocked out of the way as panicked dignitaries fled and chandeliers and wall sconces exploded in cross fire.

All she'd done was accept a dance. The negotiations had gone well and a small banquet had been arranged for afterward with music and dancing. Jo had followed the Captain, Uhura and Spock into the large ballroom, content to be largely ignored. She wasn't imperative to the mission, she had nothing to add. It was just nice to not be cooped up on the ship for once and there were lots of things to look at in the lavishly decorated ballroom. It reminded her of her mother's parties on Earth, only this time she had no plans of putting food coloring _or _laxatives in the drinks.

The Ammor Prince had approached her innocently enough after the first course had been finished and asked her to dance. At least that's what she assumed he'd asked since he held one hand out to her and the other pointed toward the dance floor.

She'd thought about refusing, she didn't usually go for royalty, they were too concerned with appearances and had no real depth from what she could see. But the last thing she wanted to do was ruin all the progress the Captain had made in his negotiations by offending the guy And he was kind of cute anyway. So while the Captain was chatting with the Queen through Uhura and Spock had disappeared somewhere, she accepted.

Yet somewhere between trying to decipher his nonsensical mummerings as he held her a bit too close to dance and wrenching herself out of his grip when he refused to let her go when the music stopped, all hell broke loose.

And now she was cowering behind an atrocious marble statue while shouts of anger in a language she didn't understand and phaserfire she did resounded all around.

With shaking fingers, Jo reached for her communicator and held it close to her ear, crouching even lower behind the large square base of the statue, the ugly thing was all that stood between her and certain death, or at the very least, capture and as of yet unknown terrors.

_"Beam us up, Scotty,"_ she heard the Captain scream, and chanced a glance around the edge of the square base to see the rest of the away team all ducked behind overturned tables and chairs on the other side of the room, defending themselves with phasers set to stun.

_"Aye Captain, but there's some sort of interfer'nce, a generator on one side of the room, I can beam up the three life signs that are togethe' but I can't get a lock on the other."_

Jo's stomach clenched. The other. That was her.

"Jim!" she screamed out momentarily forgetting the communicator, terrified he would give the order and leave her there. It was only logical. 'The good of the many' and all that. And the Captain's safety comes before all else, doesn't it? She was pretty sure she'd read that somewhere. And she had been around long enough to know The Enterprise was loyal to her captain above all else. Especially over a charity case Yeoman that wasn't supposed to be there in the first place

Whatever thoughts about to surface were halted when a ricocheting beam bounced off a metal art piece on the wall and hit her hand, the communicator falling to the floor in a heap of sparks and smoke. She yelped and cradled her now burned hand to her chest, bowing her head to her knees to make herself as small a target as possible.

A few moments later her ears perked up to the distinct whir of a transporter beam and her heart collapsed when the sounds of laser fire were still no further away.

They had left her.

She bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut against tears of betrayal and fear.

She shouldn't have been surprised.

---

"Beam us up, Scotty!" Jim shouted into his communicator. He wasn't sure exactly what had happened, just that it had led to this.

He'd been discussing the options for trade with the Ammor King with Uhura running interference and Spock spouting logic in his ear when he realized Jo was no longer at his side.

A moment later, it seemed, she was screaming for him on the other side of the room, some punk kid had her by the arm and was trying to pull her out of the room.

He would never forget the look of fear in her eyes. The desperation.

He may never forgive himself either.

_"Aye Captain, but there's some sort of interfer'nce, a generator on one side of the room, I can beam up the three life signs that are togethe' but I cann'e get a lock on the other."_

Jim peaked around the table he was using as cover, Uhura beside him laying down fire. He could see the generator from here, a massive, ugly gray thing with pulsating light. It was the power for this huge building and had been running on full in preparation for the celebration.

And immediately in front of it, cowering behind a marble statue to an Ammor God, was Jo McCoy. Small, alone, huge blue eyes and mascara running down her cheeks.

Jim pursed his lips, his decision already made.

"Mr. Scott, beam Uhura and Spock out of here, along with the security team," he glanced over his shoulder at the three young men Bones had insisted he bring with him, "leave me, I'm going to go get Jo, when you can get a lock on us, beam us up."

"Jim," Spock grabbed his arm, "you can't-"

Jim grinned, bright and easy as if he wasn't risking his life, "I'll be fine, Spock. Go back to the ship, make sure everyone is safely off the planet and then get us out of here. I have to go get Jo."

He winked and the smile fell away as he watched his crew disappear from before him.

---

Her ears were ringing and her eyes were blurry but she would swear she could hear her name being called.

Slowly, she raised her head to look around. Beyond the chaos, behind the weapon's fire, amongst the noise and destruction…there was Jim Kirk.

Her Captain.

Her savior.

"Jim!" she shouted. It sounded like the entire building was about to come down but she thought she saw his lips move to form the words 'come here'. He wanted her to cross the vast expanse of nothing that separated them, no cover, no diversions...no _way_.

"Are you crazy?" she screamed, and ducked her head when a piece of plaster fell on her legs. Maybe the building _was_ coming down.

"Jo," this time she heard him and she looked up. The determination, the absolute certainty in his eyes was undeniable, "trust me."

_You have no idea what you're asking me. _She thought, closing her eyes briefly. She glanced behind and with Jim as the only one shooting from the other side, the Ammor guards had easily freed themselves to come toward her.

"So this is the rock and the hard place I've heard so much about," she muttered and turned back around to face Jim.

With a deep breath, she got up, and ran.

_TBC_


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** So here is the update, thanks so much again to the reviewers. Love you guys!! _Mango - yeah, I toyed with the timeline for this one. Thanks for the R&R!. Em - very true, on both accounts! Thanks for R&Ring! Awesomeness._ This is a little short, but there's some nice McCoy/Jo interaction that I wanted to get in and I haven't got the next part done yet, so...this is it for now. lol. Enjoy! - pj

The silence of the transporter room was deafening after the chaos of the ballroom and Jo was finding it hard to regain her sense of balance and a regular rhythm of breathing. She'd been clutching Jim's uniform in her hands, but had to let go when he immediately jumped off the transporter pad and ran toward the console where Scotty sat.

"Bridge, this is the Captain. Hail the council; they've got some explaining to do."

Jo watched him giving orders over the comm, first to Spock, then Uhura and then she'd zoned out, no longer hearing him. Scotty was watching her from behind his tracking glass and she hugged her arms to herself, wincing when she painfully remembered her burned hand.

"Jo?"

She blinked and looked up, surprised to find the Captain standing directly in front of her. Hadn't he just been on the other side of the room?

"You okay?" he asked, his eyes narrowed in concern.

She swallowed, her throat suddenly very dry, and looked down distractedly, "Um…my hand."

She heard him hiss in sympathy as he quickly looked over the red, blistering flesh and put an arm over her shoulders, "C'mon, let's go get that looked at."

The next thing she knew she was settled on a BioBed in Sick Bay, a red headed nurse gently cleaning the burns on her hand. The Captain was nowhere to be found.

"Where's Jim?" she asked, a little surprised at how hoarse her voice sounded.

The woman looked up and met her with soft brown eyes, "he had to retake the bridge."

Jo's lips formed an 'o' and she watched in silence a moment longer, watching as the nurse carefully picked pieces of debris from the raw wound.

"My dad?" It came out in a whisper and she blinked carefully as her vision went blurry.

The Nurse looked up again, this time her whole face softened and her hand moved to rest against Jo's arm, "Lieutenant Roy needed an emergency appendectomy."

Jo nodded felt her heart sink. She looked away, finding it hard to swallow and pretty sure it didn't have to do only with the fact that whatever the woman was using to clean her hand hurt like hell.

"Dammit," the nurse muttered, "I need to go get a new battery for the Dermal Regenerator," the nurse told her, and Jo glanced down at the marred, raw red flesh of her palm, "wait right here, okay?"

Jo just nodded. Her head was pounding and her chest hurt and she really really just wanted to sleep but she had no intention of leaving.

"Jo?"

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up, expecting the Nurse with the red hair and soft eyes. Instead, she was met with craggy, curiously familiar male features and blue eyes hiding a level of concern she wasn't used to.

"Dad," her voice cracked and she fought the forthcoming tears only for a moment before bowing forward, letting her head fall on his chest, "daddy."

She felt his arms wrap around her and rub her back, and she realized she felt safe and warm for the first time since accepting that stupid dance.

"Shh, baby. It's okay now," he cooed in her ear and as much as Jo wanted to resent the concern and the safety and the 'I'm his baby girl' feeling welling up inside her, she couldn't. Because his concern was _genuine_, his arms were _safe _and she had always been, would _always _be exactly that.

"Doctor?" She pulled back and saw the Nurse hand her father the Dermal Regenerator.

"Thank you Nurse DeBellio."

Jo sniffed and held out her hand as her father carefully ran the blue beam of the tool over the wound, mending the burned skin.

"There, all set."

Jo nodded, flexing her hand experimentally.

"You okay?" McCoy asked, studying his daughter. It wasn't like her to sit so still, or stare so blankly. But then, she hadn't called him 'daddy' since she was eight years old either.

Jo looked up at him, her eyes unnaturally bright and shadowed.

"I just wish I knew what went wrong on the planet." Jo sighed, and allowed her father to stroke her hair back from her forehead. It reminded her of when he comforted her as a child, "First nothing and then _wham_! it's that scene from _The Empire Strikes Back_."

McCoy frowned, almost certain he should understand that reference and had decided to ask Jim about it later when he saw him walking through the doors.

"How is she?" Jim asked his CMO, glancing between the two.

"'_She_' is fine," Jo responded, "a little shaken up and more than ready for bed, but I'll live." She looked up to find both men staring at her with troubled expressions of worry. It made Jo feel like a goldfish in a bowl and she shifted her gaze to look at the stars outside.

"Jim, what the hell happened down there?" McCoy demanded.

"Well I was talking to Uhura and apparently," his gaze dropped, "well..."

McCoy sighed, if there was one thing he couldn't stand it was when someone stalled instead of telling him what he wanted to know. "Dammit Jim, out with it."

"Alright alright," he sighed, "apparently when you accepted the Prince's dance…you accepted his hand in marriage."

Jo's eyebrows shot up, "_excuse _me?"

"It gets worse," Jim cleared his throat, his gaze bouncing between McCoy and Jo's, "when the song was over, he was leading you away so you could…consummate your union."

"Goddamn," McCoy turned away a step, rubbing a hand down his face at the same moment Jo leapt off the bed.

"He wanted to get laid!?" Jo shook her head, "he could've just asked!"

"Joanna McCoy!" Bones whirled around, his entire face red.

Jo shrugged, her hands up in defense, "I didn't say I would've said 'yes' I just mean it's the 23rd century and there's no need to kidnap me when he could have just asked."

"God almighty," Bones turned away again and Jim looked uncomfortably caught between being amused and horrified.

"Look, Jo, why don't you go back to your quarters. Get some rest, okay?"

Jo nodded, her previously injured hand still tingled a bit from the Dermal Regenerator and she pressed it to her side. She lingered a moment before moving toward the door, watching her father's back and she looked as though she might say something. But instead she closed her mouth, turned and left.

Jim watched for several moments, but his friend kept staring out into the vasts of Space.

"Bones?" Jim said quietly, coming to stand beside his friend. He laid a hand on his shoulder, seeing the muscles in McCoy's jaw flex and jump.

"Dammit kid," McCoy took a ragged breath which Jim pretended not to notice, "it's hard enough when you go on these ridiculous missions and come back in pieces…and now with Joey too I don't …" he trailed off, shaking his head.

Jim just squeezed his shoulder, nodding. Being a captain with a crew of more than 400 to look out for had taught him many things, not the least of which being what 'worry' really was.

And he knew there was nothing he could say to ease it.

_TBC_


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** SO here is the next part.I'm trying to flesh out the characters and their interactions a bit in this one, let me know how you think I did._**Lady Sloane** - haha, I suppose anything is possible! _Enjoy! - pj

A disembodied buzzer sounded from somewhere in the gym and Jo sighed deeply, ripping her mesh helmet off her head.

"Dammit," she cursed, as she threw it to the floor and pushed her epee under her arm. Sulu took off his helmet less violently and watched Jo rip off her left glove and start flexing her hand.

"Your still hand bothering you?"

Jo only nodded, she'd been unnaturally quiet all day.

Sulu came to stand closer to look at her hand. The areas where it had been mended were still pink and sensitive. "The Dermal Regenerator accelerates the body's natural healing process but it'll probably be sore for the next few days-"

"I know," Jo grumbled, shoving her glove back on, not even wincing as the material rubbed against the new skin, "this is not the first time I've seen the business end of a DR."

She didn't look at him, but if she had she would have seen the confusion that crossed Sulu's face. DRs were expensive and only commonly used on Star ships. He watched as she reached for her discarded helmet. It was rare that they were used on Earth, one would have had to have a very serious injury where the risk for infection was too high to use traditional stitches to warrant it.

He narrowed his eyes he'd learned that the CMOs daughter was nothing if not a mystery.

Jo didn't notice Sulu's stare and was starting to put her helmet back on when he stopped her.

"I think that's enough for one day, Jo."

She frowned, protesting immediately. "C'mon, Sulu four out of five," she looked at her hand, "it doesn't even hurt that much."

Sulu just shook his head "Yeah sure, that's why you haven't landed one solid hit all day."

Jo glared at him.

Pursing his lips, Sulu considered a moment and then lowered his voice, "are you sleeping at all Jo?"

He waited and, judging by the fish-out-of-water impression she was now doing, she thought no one had noticed her subdued behavior and the bags under her eyes. Or at least, she had hoped no one would think to call her on it.

"Look, I know how it is after something like what happened on that planet. You need to give yourself some time."

Jo was biting her lip and her stomach clenched under the intensity, the _understanding_, in his stare. She swallowed hard, and for a moment the emotions she'd been fighting for the past three days bubbled to the surface.

"Don't waste energy worrying about me Sulu," she said. Then, as if realizing the raw emotion in her tone, she drew back her shoulders and forced a smile to her lips, "Anyway, I can take care of myself."

But she could feel the heat rising to her cheeks and, not wanting to stick around and see what else he might say, Jo shrugged, "you're probably right though, I think I'll call it a day. Same time tomorrow?"

She didn't wait to hear him agree and turned to leave. Just before she'd made it to the shower entrance she saw Uhura out of the corner of her eye. She was leaving one of the multi-purpose rooms with the rest of her Tae Gua class and taping up her hands, preparing to work out with a body bag on the other side of the room. Jo veered off toward her.

"Lieutenant," she said by way of greeting.

Uhura whipped her ponytail out of her face and dropped her foot from the bench where she was retying one of her shoes.

"Yeoman," she nodded, then, glancing down at her thick white garb, "working out with Sulu?"

"Oh, yeah. We just finished," she continued in a rush, "I wanted to ask you for a favor."

Uhura stiffened a bit but managed a polite, "what is it?"

Jo bit her lip and smiled as charmingly as she could, "I want you to teach me to use a phaser."

Uhura didn't even hesitate, "no," she turned to jog across the room to the body bags.

Jo dropped her helmet and sword and started pulling off her gloves as she took off, falling into step beside her.

"But why not?"

"Because it's career suicide. No way."

"Please Uhura," Jo insisted, "please help me with this."

The Lieutenant stopped suddenly and Jo had to dodge to one side to not run into her, "why?"

Jo bit her lip, hesitant to answer. Uhura rolled her eyes and started off again.

"Wait wait!"

Uhura looked back, her eyebrow raised in expectation.

"Look," she swallowed hard and glanced around, as if to see who was standing nearby, "what happened on that planet…I just don't…" she sighed at her tongue's betrayal and Uhura's eyes softened minutely, "It really shook me up, okay? I've been through a lot of messed up stuff but…nothing like that." She cleared her throat, her eyes darting around nervously, "And I was completely defenseless. I don't like that. So I'm asking you to teach me how to use a phaser so it won't happen again. _Please_."

Uhura dropped her arms from being crossed over her chest and shifted on her feet.

"Why me?" she asked, her voice exchanging challenge for curiosity.

"You're the best," Jo said simply. "Well, technically the Captain is the best marksman on the ship, but he would never teach me. He's too afraid of my Dad. Next to him it's you though, and you're not afraid of some old grumpy doctor…right?"

She saw the defiance light briefly in Uhura's eyes and grinned.

---

"Oh my god," Jo sat back from the table in Jim's quarters, rubbing her eyes roughly, "how is it possible that in this day and age there is _this _much paperwork left at the end of every day. I'm exhausted."

Jim took his queue from the girl and sat back from the table, that was covered in PADDs and styluses and yawned. He reached his hands up over his head and arched his back in a stretch sighing when it cracked satisfactorily. \

"Starfleet Regs, kid."

"Why don't they just watch the VidRecords?"

"VRs can only tell you what someone did, not why they did it." Jim muttered, rubbing his fists against his eyes. He was met with silence and opened his eyes to find Jo staring at him.

"Did you just defend _this_," she motioned meaningfully at the table and raised an eyebrow.

Jim looked thoughtful, "Yeah…you're right. Sorry. It wouldn't be Beaurocracy if it didn't have paperwork." Jo grunted in agreement and Jim scratched his head and pulled his hands down over his face, "I need a drink."

He got up, his bare feet silent as he padded across his quarters to the cabinet beside the replicator.

Jo perked up, "I'll take one."

"No," Jim gave her a look, "water, juice or milk?"

Jo rolled her eyes, "water please. And ice."

Jim relayed her order to the replicator and brought it to the table. Then returned to the small kitchen to busy himself preparing his drink, keeping his eyes glued to the bottle.

"So how are the marksman lessons coming?" he asked with feigned nonchalance.

Jo answered without thinking, the late hour overcoming her self control, "really good, Uhura thinks I'm ready to-"

She stopped short and her eyes snapped up to Kirk's.

"You did that on purpose."

Jim didn't deny it, he merely sat back down at the table and sipped his drink. He raised his eyebrows at her, urging her to explain.

Jo's shoulders slumped, "how did you know?"

The corner of Jim's mouth lifted in a smirk. "There's nothing that happens on my ship that I don't know about, Yeoman."

Jo sighed and sat back further in her chair. Somehow, she didn't doubt it.

"And," he continued, glancing down briefly, trying to sell his façade of indifference, "all weapons requests have to be personally approved by me."

Jo looked away, mouthing a curse at the floor, "I meant to intercept that one."

Jim shook his head at her and Jo shrugged. If anyone knew about breaking bad habits it was him. And she'd been forging signatures since she was eleven. She was pretty good at it by now.

She waited, but he didn't continue with a lecture as she thought he would. He didn't even ask why she'd done it.

Finally, able to stand the silence no longer, she asked quietly, "Are you gonna tell my Dad?"

"I can't lie to him." He said immediately.

"You don't have to," Jo bit her lip, "just…please don't say anything. I don't want to screw up…whatever it is that we've started."

Jim swirled the ice in his glass, watching the amber liquid rush out of the way around it, "you guys still having lunch together?"

She nodded, "once a week," she smiled slightly, "it's funny, I thought we'd run out of things to talk about after like an hour but," she shrugged, "it's not so bad."

Jim nodded and then looked up and smiled, "I'm glad. He wants to know you Jo. He feels bad about what happened between him and your mom."

She bit her lip and watched droplets of water condensate on the side of the glass and slide down to the table, "I never blamed him for that."

Silence descended, dark and heavy on the room, both caught up in memories of parents that always seemed to be substandard.

"So are you gonna tell him?" she asked finally, looking up at him with tense blue eyes.

Jim sat back after finishing off his drink and ran a hand through his hair, causing the blonde locks to stand on end. "Does it make you feel safe?"

She blinked, startled by the question and unable to respond right away. She kicked herself mentally, she really shouldn't have been surprised that he was able to read her mind. Hell, she was pretty sure there was nothing James Kirk couldn't do if he really wanted to.

"Yeah," she nodded, "it does Jim."

He sighed and looked down, buying time by rearranging a few of the PADDs on the table and getting up to put his glass in the DishCleaner.

He turned around and locked eyes with Jo's anxious gaze and she looked so hesitant, so much like a frightened child that he couldn't deny her.

"No. I won't tell him."

Immediately the knots in Jo's stomach released and she forced her jaw to relax.

"Thanks," she whispered, rubbing her left hand unconsciously.

She didn't notice Jim watching her, or the protective understanding in his eyes.

"It's late kid, why don't you get to bed."

Jo looked up at the time displayed on one of the PADDs.

0130. That explained the exhaustion.

She smiled gratefully and stood, grabbing her discarded boots and walked toward the door that connected her quarters to the Captain's.

She stopped just as they opened and turned back, "Wait a minute, _nothing _on your ship you don't know about?"

"Nope," he shook his head playfully and then, "Well, except for the floating poker game Chekov runs every other Friday night. I don't know anything about that." He dipped his chin and slid his eyes from side to side as if looking for eavesdroppers, "it's still in Uhura's quarters this week, right?"

Jo grinned and nodded. He winked and gave her the 'thumbs up' to which Jo just shook her head.

"Goodnight Captain."

"G'nite Jo."

_TBC_


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** Here's the next part, I've really enjoyed reading and responding to everyone's reviews and huge thanks to everyone who put this on alert, I hope you guys feel like reviewing this time around. This one's pretty long, but it's some of my favorite scenes so...Enjoy! - pj

---

"Scotty?"

"Aye."

"What's your family like?"

Jo was lying on her back, staring up into the belly of the ship, the warp core. One hand fidgeted with the fabric of her tunic while the other dangled casually into the box of tools between her and the Engineer. Scotty was in much the same position he had been when she met him, waist deep in some machine, which he'd learned was the protoplasma regulation filter, with the occasional curse or grunt punctuating his speech.

"Ah, I have two sisters, and a wee mother who can cook the livin' daylights out of a lamb," he said, his voice muffled and oddly echoed, like he was talking inside of a metal helmet.

"And you're father?" She asked, furrowing her brows when the pulsating lights of the fluctuating dilithium in the core brightened slightly, "okay, I can see it now. The valve's open."

"Good lass," he praised the ship, "micron hammer please, love."

Jo absently handed him the tool and Scotty answered, dropping a handful of metal bolts to the ground beside him.

"I, ah, I don' really know me father."

"I'm sorry," Jo said after a moment her voice soft. She tilted her head. She liked contemplating the warp core from this angle. It was sort of beautiful. Like it was alive, pulsing all around them. "Do you regret that?"

She heard Scotty stop tampering and she swung her eyes over as he pulled his head out to look at her.

"Aye lass, sometimes I do."

She bit her lip and nodded.

"D'ya know what I think?"

Jo frowned slightly, "The ship could break warp seven if the Captain would just give you permission to get that mineral you want from Kiloth?"

"No, well, yes, but-" he sighed, gathering his thoughts, "I think you ought to give your Da a chance. No hear me out," he said quickly, seeing the change in her expression, "he extended his hand to ya', gettin' you on this ship. And you're doing well because of it." She narrowed her eyes, looking for something to deny, "Just, reach back out to him. See what ya' find."

"I'm already having lunch with him once a week, Scotty. I _am _trying."

"Aye. But could you not try a wee bit harder? I donne' think your favorite tv show counts as deep conversation."

"I haven't seen him since I was ten years old," Jo protested, becoming defenseive, "what do you want me to do? Reveal my darkest secrets? Not gonna happen." She turned away, refusing to allow him to read into her expression.

Scotty sighed, tapping the hammer against his palm lightly, "Time goes by faster in space. Don' miss the chance ye have here and now to mend bridges."

Jo's eyes skittered back over to him and he could see the wheels turning there.

Scotty smiled gently and winked at her before re-immersing himself in the machine, "Now off with ye', the Captain will soon be looking for ya'."

"Yeah yeah," Jo groaned, sitting up. She started toward the turbo lift, Scotty's words floating around in her head.

---

"Am I to understand that the Yeoman still has yet to undergo her required Registration physical?" Spock walked with Uhura on one side of him and McCoy on the other, on their way to begin their shift.

"Look, Spock, I don't tell you how to do your job-"

"Quite inaccurate Dr. McCoy," Spock interrupted, and Uhura hid a smirk as she pressed the button to order the Turbo Lift, "you often come to the bridge with…'suggestions' on how you think-"

"Regardless," McCoy snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose, "you know as well as I do that Jo's Yeomanship is a special case. And you can't force this sort of thing with Jo," he reasoned.

McCoy fully intended to broach the subject of her medical history with Jo one of these days, but was still trying to take into account what Jim had told him. Trying to give her time.

"Listen, I've got all of her medical records and as long as she gets the physical done within her first six months aboard, she'll still be within Regs."

Spock raised an eyebrow but didn't comment further and Uhura smiled fondly, wondering when exactly the Vulcan had begun implying the 'pick your battles' line of thought he used on Jim, with the CMO.

"Anyway, as long as she gets all her vaccines before leaving the ship and doesn't take up something foolish like phaser-play, she'll be fine." McCoy said offhand, and then glanced over when Uhura's steps faltered as they stepped inside the Turbo Lift.

"Nyota, are you well?" Spock asked, a note of concern in his voice that her sharp ears only barely detected.

She smiled and then chuckled nervously, making Spock frown.

"I, uh, I yes, of course. I just…forgot…something," she smiled again at Spock and touched his hand briefly before getting off as the lift doors opened on the G Deck, which was certainly not the bridge where she was due in just a few minutes.

McCoy frowned as he watched her go, "what is that all about?"

Spock stared after her, his head tilted in puzzlement, "I am not sure."

---

Jo stared down at her food, some sort of stew that smelled heavenly and looked…well it smelled good anyway.

"Jo? You alright?" McCoy asked, glancing up from his steak, "you've been pretty quiet."

Jo shrugged, "fine. Just…nothing to say, I guess." She shrugged again and looked down. Truth be told she had plenty of things floating around in her head she could say. She just wasn't sure she should, or even if they were things her father would care to hear about.

"How's the hand?"

She looked down at her fully healed hand and flexed it, "Great. I beat Sulu today."

McCoy nodded, his eyebrows up in interest, "that's good."

She nodded and went back to her food.

"And Scotty?"

"What about him?"

McCoy sipped his beer, "he mentioned you stop by Engineering almost every morning to talk to him. I thought you didn't like Engineering." He saw Jo's mouth twitch slightly in a would-be smile.

"I don't go to see Scotty. I go to see _her_. Enterprise," she got a dreamy look on her face that McCoy recognized, he'd seen it on the eccentric engineer's face enough to know it with his eyes closed, "she's beautiful, you know? And Engineering is like…like her heart. It's amazing down there. Complex and elegant and alive...beautiful," she suddenly seemed to remember herself and dropped her gaze shyly, finally setting to work on her stew to keep her mouth busy.

"And the smell of dilithium?" He asked, almost laughing at the memory of a grade school Jo wrinkling her nose at the smell of dilithium on his brother –in-law's clothes after a required Essential Engineering training course at the academy.

Jo shrugged, "he's the most normal person down there."

Then McCoy had to laugh, "that does not inspire confidence, Jo."

Jo shrugged, chuckling lightly, "I mean, they're great and all. Smart as hell but…yeah. Weird. One of them will only use a tool if it 'smells' right." She smiled, thoughts of engineering bringing back the memory of Scotty's words from a few days before.

"Dad?"

He looked up, surprised by the suddenly serious look on her face, "yeah?"

"I-I want you to know something," she dropped her spoon and pulled both her hands into her lap, clasping them tightly, "with Mom's," she cleared her throat, "Mom's boyfriends. And husbands. I never um…" she paused and looked up, seeing her father had his full attention on her, and she tried to force her tongue to cooperate.

"They weren't you," she said finally, "and that meant they were never good enough for me," she finished abruptly and nodded to punctuate the confession. Seemingly embarrassed by the admission, she excused herself and left quickly, dropping her tray in the waste recycler as she walked out.

McCoy couldn't even move to stare after her, his steak and everything else around him, forgotten. After several minutes he reached for his beer, sipping it slowly. It was as close and Jo had come to saying she loved him since the day he'd moved out.

_They weren't you._

For a long time after that he sat in the Mess hall, sipping beer and staring at the stars.

_And that meant they were never good enough for me._

---

Uhura walked out of the bathroom and shuddered. How was it that such an advanced civilization had such a poor sense of toileting hygiene? She wiped her freshly washed hands on her skirt a few times as she maneuvered her way back out into the main room.

The brief stop off at Yorn Six was unscheduled but very much appreciated. The Captain knew his crew was weary after almost six weeks cooped up on the ship and, according to him, a mini-shore leave was in order.

And he was Captain after all, so who was Uhura to complain?

The place she, Sulu, Christine and Chekov had decided to go was some sort of cross between a bar and bakery, highly recommended on some of the more 'unofficial' channels. She'd been a little disappointed to find that Spock wouldn't come with, but he was intent on visiting the Museum of Rare Mineral History on the western continent and the place held absolutely no appeal for her so they went their separate ways.

They'd met up with Jo and Bones in the corridor on the way to the transporter room and invited them along for the outing. Bones declined almost as eagerly as Jo accepted.

Unsurprisingly, when they got to the planet Christine met up with some 'alien mega hottie' and promised to give Uhura all the juicy details later, like it or not, and disappeared. Even so, the four of them had been having a pretty good time, sharing jokes and stories of past missions and their Captain's wild antics.

But when Uhura returned to where she'd left the small group after her bathroom break, she frowned at the two unexpectedly empty stools.

"Sulu," she said, once she was close enough to be heard over the live band. But the young man's back was to her, leaning against the bar talking to some blonde, leggy Caitian who was purring sweet nothings in his ear.

"_Hikaru_," she hissed, and accompanied it with a smack on the shoulder to get his attention.

"What?" he asked, annoyed.

"Where are they?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

"Where are wh-" he glanced down at the two empty seats where he could have sworn Chekov and Jo had been seated not two seconds ago, "I don't know, they probably went to the bathroom."

"I just came from the bathroom, Sulu." She spied the two empty glasses on the bar, "and what is this? You let them drink?" she accused disbelievingly.

"I didn't let them do anything, alright?" Sulu insisted, "they're adults."

Uhura scoffed, "_no_, they are _not_. Chekov barely fits the bill and Jo isn't even on the menu!" Uhura stopped, shaking her head and beating down the sinking in her stomach that said something about this would end up on her permanent record.

She reached out to sample the blue remnants of a drink in one of the glasses, her eyes widened when the tangy, sweet taste melted against her tongue and then made her want to gag.

"Oh. My God."

Sulu, who had been distracted by his furry friend walking away, her tale wrapped seductively around his leg the entire time, irritably brought his attention back to his crewmate, "what?"

"This is Romulan Ale, Sulu," her tone was now not so much accusatory as bordering on hysterical.

Sulu's eyes widened by he attempted valiantly to play it cool, "so?"

"So? Hikaru Sulu you know as well as I do that a single sip of this stuff could give Scotty a run for his money. It's almost 250 proof!"

Sulu frowned, "is that even possible?"

"Why don't you drink a few bottles and find out," she challenged, raising an eyebrow. Sulu clicked his mouth shut and Uhura shook her head again, "and now the two hormonal _teenagers_ have taken off with enough of it running through their systems to make their heads explode tomorrow."

"Or if it doesn't they'll wish it would." Sulu could feel Uhura's glare on his skin and shut his mouth again.

Uhura stopped pacing to take a deep breath and pinched the bridge of her nose. She looked up and tried to get a view of someone, preferably the missing Ensign and Yeoman, but the club was dimly lit and a haze of smoke and noise surrounded them.

"Look we have to find them."

"Why? They're probably just dancing, having a little fun. It's what we're here for, isn't it?" Sulu justified, sipping his Bud Classic.

Uhura narrowed her eyes and stepped a little bit closer, "think about it Sulu. Chekov, who blushes every time Jo comes into a room and Jo, who has no self control to speak of, are hopped up on Romulan Ale and loose in this bar. You really think they're _dancing_?" Seeing she had his attention, she continued, "and if they aren't do you really want to be the one to explain _that_ situation to arguably the grumpiest CMO in the fleet?"

"You're overreacting," Sulu tried, though his tone was unconvincing. Another glare from Uhura coupled with the image of McCoy even hearing a rumour of Jo in the state she was undoubtedly in (he'd had Romulan Ale before. This was not going to be pretty no matter how it went down) made up his mind.

"You're right. Let's find them."

---

_Soft. _

_Strong. Wet._

_Hot. _

_Skin. Hard._

_ Need. Lust. Want. _

_Soft._

Jo pulled back, her lips swollen and her hair disheveled, and stared into the glazed, intense eyes blue eyes of the Russian.

"Vat?" Chekov whispered, his cheeks flushed and skin glowing.

Her breath came in heaving gasps and she ran her hands though his golden curls, "I feel like my brain is on fire."

He laughed and her heart stumbled, "you too?"

She grinned. One of her legs was wrapped around his waist and she could have sworn Chekov had been wearing a gold tunic before, but couldn't get her mind to follow the train of thought long enough to care. She liked his black undershirt better anyway.

Chekov's warm fingers massaged the skin at her waist, his hand easily reaching it with her leg at this angle, her pathetic excuse for a skirt riding up generously. Her stomach was doing flip flops while the pulsating lights and music and heat of the club tangled around them and Chekov's arms were so damn distracting.

She attacked his lips again.

_Pull. Bite. Feel._

_ Need. _

_Risk. Grab. Take. Touch. _

_Scent. Taste. _

_Mine. _

"Oh my God!"

Jo heard the voice somewhere behind her but it was far away and sounded upset so she certainly didn't want to stop what she was doing, what _he_ was doing, to find out what it meant.

A moment later though, she felt a cold hand wrap around her arm and she was pulled back, away from Chekov's lean, deceivingly muscular body

She pouted, "what's going on?"

She could see Sulu had much the same hold on Chekov that Uhura had on her.

"We're taking you back to the ship. Right now."

"But I don't-"

"Uhura to the Enterprise, four to beam up."

As the noise and smoke of the club dissolved into a shimmer of light she heard Sulu's voice.

"Wasn't she wearing boots before?"

---

The transporter room was bright and cold and quiet compared to the club and the recycled air burned Jo's lungs.

"Ugh," she groaned, stumbling back off the rounded pad, "I want to go back."

Uhura rolled her eyes and to her chagrin could see Chekov having much the same reaction.

"C'mon Buddy," Sulu swung one of the younger man's arms up over his shoulder to lead him from the room, "lets get you to bed."

Jo was squinting and her blue eyes rolled around in her head, tracking the walls of the room as if they were spinning around her.

"Trippy."

Uhura sighed, reaching out to grasp her arm again, "c'mon." Uhura lead the way out, leaving explicit instructions with the ensign at the console that she was not to repeat _any_ of what she just saw to _anyone_.

It wouldn't stop the news turned gossip from spreading, on a ship Enterprise's size, nothing could. But it would at least slow it down.

By the time they made it to O deck Chekov had left off English to babble mindlessly in Russian, his eyes closed and resting his head against Sulu's shoulder as he tried to carry both their weights down the corridor.

Jo seemed to be suffering the opposite effects of coming down off the alcoholic high. She squinted against every light, her lips pursed and jaw clenched against a throbbing ache in her eyeballs.

"Oh, I'm really starting to regret that bet."

Uhura frowned and glanced over, "what bet?"

Jo sighed, her head lolling to one side and she winced, "the one that said I could drink an entire mug of Ale before Andy."

Uhura's nostril's flared as she forced herself to take a deep breath, "of course. _Of course_ this your doing."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jo asked, though the affront in her voice might have sounded more convincing without the hint of whining behind it.

"Nothing."

Jo frowned and took to grumbling, growling or cursing any and everything that caused her pain.

"Really? The computer voice?" Uhura shook her head, leading the Yeoman into her quarters, "you're starting to sound like your father."

"Say that again and I'll punch you straight in the nose Leut…Leyu…Uhura." Jo slurred, taking great issue with the word Lieutenant before finally giving up.

Uhura paused, but decided the girl was probably too drunk to realize what she'd just said.

"Fine. Just-" She grunted as she lowered or, more accurately, dropped Jo onto the couch and the girl landed with a groan. The door chimed and Jo cursed.

Loudly.

"Lay here."

"Like I would willingly go anywhere else," Jo mumbled, throwing an arm over her eyes as Uhura jogged across the room to answer the door.

"Sulu, what the hell are you doing?" she poked her head out to see that the hallway was empty, "you have to stay with him."

Sulu looked pained, "but he's singing," he lowered his voice and his expression changed into something that could only be described as pathetic, "opera."

Uhura almost smiled, but quelled the impulse and pointed back down the hall toward Chekov's quarters, "Go. For all our sakes."

When he left she turned around, dismayed to find Jo no longer on the couch. "Jo I thought I told you to-"

In that moment the distinct sound of someone emptying the contents of their stomach into a toilet reached her ears and Uhura closed her eyes and groaned.

"Just how I wanted to spend my vacation," she sighed, running her hands over her face as she made her way toward the bathroom, "hold on Jo, I'm coming."

_TBC_


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:** Sorry sorry!! I'm not dead i swear! Just feeding, over feeding probably, a **Leverage **addiction that shows no signs of fading away. At any rate here's the next installment, mostly just an excuse for shamelss Jo/Chekov fluff. lol. All mistakes are mine, I hope there aren't too many but...yeah, there probably are. Sorry again. Enjoy! - pj

---

"Here are those protocols you asked for Captain," Jo handed him the PADDs and resumed her place behind and to the right of his chair, clasping her hands to keep them from fidgeting. God she wished she was in engineering right then. But Scotty and his team were testing some new chemical compounds they'd discovered and he'd made it very clear Jo was to stay away while they did so, citing her 'bad luck' and his 'bad measuring abilities' as reason.

Kirk furrowed his brow, sensing her presence but not looking up. She didn't usually stand around like that. She liked to go off and mingle with the rest of the bridge crew usually if he had nothing else for her to do, but she'd been hovering near his elbow all morning.

"Looks good, will you give this to Chekov so he can input it into the computer?" He handed the PADD back, testing a theory. He could have just as easily transferred the data to Chekov's con, but he thought he'd noticed some tension between his bridge crew that morning, especially the four that had gone to the planet the night before. he needed to be sure

Jo's eyes widened minutely and her gaze whipped to the blonde ensign and then back again.

"Of-of course," she said quietly, and Kirk watched with interest as Jo walked quickly over to Chekov's station, handing him the PADD from as far away as possible and then turning to return to his side. Kirk narrowed his eyes.

Jo would never pass up an opportunity to chat with the helmsmen unless they were in some sort of emergency, which flying at warp two toward the uncharted Toille system certainly was not. Jo and Sulu were both as good with their tongues as they were with their swords and it was not uncommon for them to trade barbs and gentle ribbing for an entire shift without so much as a raised eyebrow from the rest of the crew. And Jo's casual flirting with Chekov had become standard. He wasn't totally thrilled about it but it was harmless so long as they…wait.

Were Chekov's ears always that red or was he…

"Spock, take the con," Kirk said, his eyes still burning a hold into the back of his helmsmen's necks, "Uhura, Sulu, Chekov and McCoy, meet me in my ready room."

---

"_Finally_," Jo breathed, slumping against the bulkhead of her quarters. "The day from Hell is _over_."

There was no other way to describe it. Not counting the fact that she'd woken up smelling rank of bar and old socks, her head had felt as if she'd spent the entire night banging it against the wall and her whole body was uncomfortable and achy from being curled up on the floor of her bathroom.

But, that wasn't the worst part.

The worst part was that she remembered. She remembered everything. Every single teensy, weensy, hot, sweaty, sticky detail. Every word they'd exchanged. Every move they'd made. The way Chekov's hands had felt on her hips, his lips on her's.

The absolute _humiliation _she'd felt when she realized neither of them had been in their right minds.

Her brain had kept buzzing all morning while on the bridge. She was distracted and quiet, her bottom lip was raw from being chewed out of nervous habit. Because she'd _liked _kissing Chekov. Liked it a lot more than she expected.

But she doubted that he had had the same reaction. They were completely different people from completely different worlds. It would probably never work.

And she'd been so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she hadn't noticed that Sulu and Chekov were just as distracted as she. And Uhura was so eager to please she'd almost surpassed Jo in the Yeoman department.

But the Captain had noticed. Jim, Jo had discovered, noticed _everything. _

When he put two and two together, or at least part of it, he'd called them all into his ready room.

And what a dressing down _that _had been. When the truth came out in all its drunken, raunchy 'omg what the fuck did we _do_' glory, Jo had prayed the floor would simply open up and swallow her. Uhura and Sulu had been put on Gym sanitation duty for a week to help them 'learn responsibility' and Chekov and Jo had been let off with a warning and the promise that if either of them ever touched Romulan Ale again their punishment would be much worse than cleaning the Gym showers and wrestling mats.

None of them had argued, knowing that as long as what had happened stayed between the five of them, and stayed away from the ears of the CMO, they'd gotten off light.

Jo sighed and dropped her head into her hands. She was going to change into some more comfortable clothes, replicate a chocolate Sunday and get in bed for a week.

Maybe forever.

But before she could finish the third part of her plan, her door chime rang. Thinking it was probably Uhura there to give her an earful over what had happened, she dropped her spoon and ran over to the door licking chocolate sauce off her lips as she swiped it open.

"Do we really have to go over this again I-," she stopped suddenly and her eyes went as wide as saucers.

Chekov furrowed his brow in confusion, "go over vat again?"

"Andy!" she yelped, then, realizing her appearance, in an oversized sweatshirt, no makeup and her hair a mess, she jumped to the side so he was just looking into her quarters. Which, in their current state, wasn't all that much better of a view.

"Don't look at me!" She ordered when he started to poke his head around the corner toward her.

Chekov reeled back quickly, confused by her erratic behavior, "Jo?"

"What do you want, Andy?" She said, her voice muffled by her hands as she pressed her face into the wall.

"I, um, I vanted to talk to you. I thought ve should after…you know. Everyzing."

Jo sighed, "Why didn't you send me a MessageLink?" she asked mournfully, looking over at her computer and seeing no blinking alerts.

"I…it did not occur to me."

"Well it should have. I'm so gross right now!" she closed her eyes as embarrassment flushed her cheeks once more and she shrugged further into her sweatshirt.

Chekov shifted on his feet, staring at the floor, "I don't sink zat. I don't' sink zat at all."

There was the sound of slight shuffling and he looked up to see one of Jo's blue eyes peering at him from around the corner of the bulkhead. He recognized a smile even if he couldn't see it.

"I'll meet you on E deck in half an hour."

Chekov grinned.

---

Jo arrived on E deck twenty minutes later and saw Chekov pacing outside the doors of one of the chemistry labs. He looked up at the sound of the turbolift arriving and grinned when he saw her, now 'presentable' in a pair of jeans, a _Woodstock 2035_ t-shirt and red streaks of hair framing her face.

Jo stepped into stride beside him and they ambled down the corridor for a few moments in silence, neither knowing how to start.

"So, how's your head?" Jo asked finally. She saw Chekov wince slightly in her peripheral vision and felt a stab of sympathy for him.

"Better now. But it vas unbearable this morning."

Jo nodded with a grimace, "yeah. Mine too."

The silence stretched on for two more corridors.

"I don't know what he was so upset about," Jo said finally, "It's not as if we did anything he hasn't done at least a dozen times."

Chekov didn't need any clarification as to what or who Jo was talking about, "I think the Keptin was more upset _for _us than he was _at _us."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, Sulu and Uhura are senior officers. They're supposed to set an example for the 'younger more impressionable crew members'," he used air quotes to indicate his true feelings about that expectation and Jo had to laugh. Chekov had never seemed anything other than content with all of Starfleet's rules.

"Oh yeah, we young-ins, so easily corrupted," she shook her head, "anyway it wasn't their faults. I'm the one that made that stupid bet."

"And I accepted it. Zat means I am as much to blame as you." He paused and then, "by ze way, I believe you owe me a debt."

Jo's eyes sparkled a bit and she stopped, turning to look at him, "I totally drank mine before you."

Chekov stopped as well, raising an eyebrow at her, "no, you didn't," he smiled, "and you said if you lost you would tell me somezing no one else knows." His voice was serious but his eyes open and honest. Jo nodded.

"Okay."

Then she turned and walked away. Chekov stared after the girl for a moment, then she glanced over her shoulder at him and jerked her head.

"You comin'?"

---

"Jo, vere are we going?" Chekov questioned a bit impatiently. She'd brought him to engineering without a word and they'd been walking for nearly ten minutes, weaving their way further and further into the bowels of the ship.

He'd only ever seen this area of the ship in video feeds, but Jo seemed perfectly at home among the pipes and billowing let-off steam around them.

"We're almost there, Andy, I promise."

Ten minutes after that, she stopped and dropped to her knees, entering a code on a panel that was hidden beneath a long row of titanium pipes, and sliding into a Jefferies access tube.

"Jo?"

His only answer was to have a small pale hand shoot out and grab his, pulling him into the tube after her.

Once inside Chekov followed her on his hands and knees, not unappreciative of the view.

"Andy?"

"Yes?"

"Stop staring at my ass."

He coughed and choked a bit, but tried to do as she asked. Though he secretly suspected she didn't _really _want him to stop, because crawling on your hands and knees certainly did not require one to sashay their hips _quite _that much.

---

Chekov thought he'd been very reasonable up to this point. But they'd been crawling in the cramped space for almost five minutes now and he was beginning to think Jo was just leading them in circles.

"Jo, if zis is your way of getting me to admit that you won ze bet I-"

He was cut off as Jo pushed open another access door and crawled out, "we're here."

He closed his mouth, suppressed a sigh of relief and followed her out into the small space. It was some sort of manual override center. There were wires and pipes everywhere along with panels of buttons and readouts and override levers. The entire space was octagonal in shape, maximizing wall space, but only 10 feet across at its widest point.

"Vere is 'here' exactly?"

Jo just smirked and flopped down on the floor, folding her hands on her stomach. He tilted his head at her but, at her impatient look, he laid down beside her.

He mimicked her position and looked up…and forgot to breathe.

"Bozhe moĭ," he whispered, "vere are we?"

Jo smiled. "The belly of the warp core," she whispered, equally breathless. Less than twenty feet above them the warp core pulsed in a slow, steady rhythm. Blue light bathed the room in an other-worldly glow and, now that they were on the floor, they could feel the ship vibrating with every beat. It was warmer here too, but not humid, and every now and then a dilithium cluster would hit the reaction banks and spark a bright yellow light and purple light. It was mesmerizing, hypnotic, like an open flame but bigger, so much more powerful.

Jo found herself reaching for Chekov's hand, their fingers weaving together and falling between them, their shoulders almost touching.

"This is my favorite place on the ship…maybe in the galaxy," she whispered, "Nobody knows that."

Chekov felt something swell in his chest and he gasped a breath, unsure of how to respond.

"I don't know vat to say."

With some effort Jo tore her eyes off the spectacular view and turned her head to look at Chekov.

"Admit I won the bet and tell me something no one knows about _you_."

Chekov turned to look at her as well and their faces lay mere inches apart, basked in the warm blue glow of the warp core.

His eyes locked with hers.

"I've vanted to kiss you since the first moment I saw you." He said quietly.

Jo blinked slowly and the small smirk fell off her lips. She didn't know what to say to that.

So she didn't say anything.

She tilted her head up, just slightly, and moved forward, pressing her lips to his, shy and tentative. Soft and light.

Despite anything that had happened the night before, they both counted it as their first kiss.

_TBC_


End file.
